In Women, Partisanship, and the Congress, Jocelyn Jones Evans brings a fresh perspective to the women officeholder literature. Rather than emphasizing gendered impact on policy and political outcomes, she focuses on elements of the institutional impact on women's professional opportunities. The primary question underlying her analysis is not “What difference do women make?” but “What opportunities do they have for career advancement given the cultures of the two major parties?” In this, the central premise of the book fits within recent scholarly inquiry into the effects of gendered institutions on the experiences and impact of women officeholders. Further, her work serves as a reminder that scholars have not placed sufficient emphasis on female legislators' ability to achieve career success—and that success possibilities differ in each of the two major parties.

The foundation of Evans's thesis is the disparate cultures of the Democratic and Republican congressional parties. She argues that Democrats reward ideological and descriptive diversity, constituent responsiveness, equalitarian organization and participation, and seniority rule. On the other hand, Republicans reward ideological homogeneity, party loyalty, internal competition, hierarchical organization, and elite participation. These cultures, combined with differential levels of electoral security of Democratic and Republican women (Democratic women tend to come from safe, liberal-learning districts; Republican women tend to represent the party's least-secure districts) constrain Republican women more deeply than Democratic women. Nevertheless, according to Evans, neither party offers women opportunities equal to men's for institutional career success.

Using quantitative measures of electoral security, ideological orientation, party unity, proportion of women in leadership, and party-building activity from the 103^rd through the 107^th Congresses (in which both Democrats and Republicans held the majority), and interview data with members of Congress, their staffs, and other party elites from the 107^th Republican-controlled Congress, Evans assesses the experiences and behaviors of congressional women. The interaction of party culture with differences by party in electoral security of women results in the following: 1) Marginal Democratic women and marginal Republican women are more conservative than their secure counterparts; 2) even though women as a whole are more liberal than men across issues areas (with the biggest differences on social issues), Democratic women are more ideologically homogeneous than are Republicans; 3) female party unity is higher than male party unity, but Democratic women are more unified within their party than are Republican women; 4) women's party-building activities are generally equal to (or, for Republican women, greater than) men's; and 5) apart from the historically significant ascent of Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to minority leader, neither party sufficiently rewards women's attentiveness and effort with committee chairwomanships or positions on the leadership ladder.

Focusing especially on women's status in the Republican Party, Evans asserts that, although they reside in the congressional majority, Republican women have less leeway than their Democratic counterparts to fulfill political and personal goals. The culprit is their need to be more attuned to electoral marginality than Democratic women. To achieve the greatest possible levels of security, vulnerable Republican women ingratiate themselves with the party by cultivating more conservative voting records than dictated by district ideology, and participating in more party-building activities than their male counterparts. Despite these efforts to fit into the mainstream of the party culture, Republican women are even less rewarded in the currency of institutional advancement than are Democratic women. That Republican women's representation in leadership positions (both as committee chairs and on the leadership ladder) has declined during these years is compelling evidence of this point. Further, interview data suggest that Republican women are well aware of their marginal status within the party; according to Evans, they are inclined to perceive their role within the party as underdeveloped and limited to supportive functions.

The subtext of Women, Partisanship, and the Congress is that women and politics scholars have not paid sufficient attention to what might be called “the higher costs” theory of women's political involvement. That is, in gendered institutions, the playing field is not level; although women can achieve success (of all types, including electoral, policy, and leadership success), it comes at a higher cost. According to Evans, while this may be more true of Republican women in the U.S. Congress on the measures she employs, both parties across all levels of government can do a great deal more to support and promote their female members.

Although this study brings much-needed attention to the impact of one element of institutional gendering, there are important analyses that Evans elides. First, she does not meaningfully explore the connection between her thesis and the enduring findings of the impact of female women officeholders on agenda setting, legislative deliberation, and policy adoption—most importantly, that women representatives act for women. The consequences of these proclivities in terms of party standing and success warrant additional analysis. Additionally, she does not explore the implications for women, politics, and society of the higher costs for women's public service. In particular, to what extent are women's chances for representational parity affected by this price? Finally, although she gives a brief nod to the existence of gendered power dynamics in legislatures beyond those related to party culture, the author does not substantively connect her work to the increasingly trenchant analyses of all the elements of gendered institutions and gendered societal roles—and their consequences.

Evans concludes by saying: “Whether a woman is a Democrat or Republican matters” (p. 137). Women, Partisanship, and the Congress makes this case with an original and provocative argument.