"Presidentas, Power and Pro-Women Change"
Winner of the 2017 Best Dissertation Award
for the American Political Science Association's Women and Politics section
Abstract: Under what conditions do women in office leverage their power on behalf of women? Despite Latin America’s deep gender inequalities, women have democratically won the presidency more times here than in any other region in the world. Though similarly situated, Presidents Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil dramatically diverged in their use of power to advance pro-women change. This dissertation solves the Bachelet-Rousseff puzzle with a novel, constituency theory. I argue that female politicians are most likely to deploy their power to promote change favoring women when they have (1) successfully mobilized women on the basis of gender identity (core constituency); and (2) extensively networked with elite feminists and other female politicians (personal constituency). To illustrate and test this constituency theory, I employ newspaper archives to trace the formation of constituencies of all viable candidates in Chile’s and Brazil’s presidential races from 1999-2010. I then draw on three original databases to measure the use of legislative and appointment power to advance pro-women change by the winners of these elections. Challenging existing theories of representation, the dissertation provides fresh insights on the benefits and limitations of women’s presence in political office.
Here is a direct link to my dissertation, which is publicly available.
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/51646
for the American Political Science Association's Women and Politics section
Abstract: Under what conditions do women in office leverage their power on behalf of women? Despite Latin America’s deep gender inequalities, women have democratically won the presidency more times here than in any other region in the world. Though similarly situated, Presidents Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil dramatically diverged in their use of power to advance pro-women change. This dissertation solves the Bachelet-Rousseff puzzle with a novel, constituency theory. I argue that female politicians are most likely to deploy their power to promote change favoring women when they have (1) successfully mobilized women on the basis of gender identity (core constituency); and (2) extensively networked with elite feminists and other female politicians (personal constituency). To illustrate and test this constituency theory, I employ newspaper archives to trace the formation of constituencies of all viable candidates in Chile’s and Brazil’s presidential races from 1999-2010. I then draw on three original databases to measure the use of legislative and appointment power to advance pro-women change by the winners of these elections. Challenging existing theories of representation, the dissertation provides fresh insights on the benefits and limitations of women’s presence in political office.
Here is a direct link to my dissertation, which is publicly available.
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/51646