Do Voting Rights Matter? Legislative Consequences of Women’s Suffrage

In a representative democracy, the ability to vote is a citizen’s primary tool for holding policymakers accountable. Women’s suffrage was an important step in resolving significant inequality in access to political power for women. However, we know little about whether policymakers adapted their behavior to account for women’s suffrage. Political scientists Michael Olson, Mirya Holman, and Christina Wolbrecht will examine how women’s enfranchisement impacted state policymakers’ behavior in the first half of the twentieth century. They will draw on archival materials such as state legislative activity and policy agendas and legislator characteristics to create two linked datasets of legislators and legislation from 1900 to 1930.