MEMBERS OF CONGRESS RESPONDING TO WOMEN’S ISSUES

The representation of women in Congress has increased notably in recent decades; however, women remain underrepresented—occupying fewer than 25% of the seats. The underrepresentation of women in elective office seriously challenges our notions of democratic representation and the legitimacy of our institutions as a means of popular control. Research on women in politics emphasizes the important role of gender in the priorities and issue positions of women both in the electorate and in office. The different policy priorities of men and women in the electorate have been well documented (Box-Steffensmeier, DeBoef, and Lin Reference Box-Steffensmeier, DeBoef and Lin2004). Women typically hold more liberal viewpoints on social welfare, criminal justice, and foreign policy (Shapiro and Mahajan Reference Shapiro and Mahajan1986). Women also are more likely to advocate for government funding of health care and education, and they are more likely to be in favor of other programs that help the elderly, sick, and children (Page and Shapiro Reference Page and Shapiro1992).

When women run for office, they may be helped by campaigning more heavily on these topics with female voters. However, at the same time, others might view the candidates as being able to discuss only those issues and not be suitable for political office when we need representatives to address a broader range of issues. Research in this area has shown that women gain a significant advantage at the polls when they emphasize these issues with female voters (Huddy and Terkildsen Reference Huddy and Terkildsen1993); however, female candidates also are harmed by emphasizing these traditional “women’s issues” (Larson Reference Larson2001; Witt, Paget, and Matthews Reference Witt, Paget and Matthews1994).

Research that examines women’s issues and campaigning has shown that women tend to emphasize these issues when they provide them with an advantage over their competitor; this happens in both traditional media (i.e., radio, print, and television) and online campaigning (Ditonto and Andersen Reference Ditonto and Andersen2018; Evans and Clark Reference Evans and Clark2016; Fridkin and Kenney Reference Fridkin and Kenney2009). Not only do female candidates spend more time discussing these topics during campaigns; they also tend to focus on these areas when they are in office (Clark and Caro Reference Clark and Caro2013; Shogan Reference Shogan2002; Walsh Reference Walsh and Rosenthal2002). For instance, Gerrity, Osborn, and Mendez (Reference Gerrity, Osborn and Mendez2007) found that women who replace men in the same district focus on women’s issues more often. In Congress, both Republican and Democratic women tend to sponsor and co-sponsor legislation that addresses women’s issues more often than men in their respective party (Swers Reference Swers2002).

Although the background of women may shape their legislative actions, we also know that legislative decision making does not occur in a vacuum. The institutional rules and political environment likely shape the behavior of members, including congresswomen. Thus, whereas gender stereotypes suggest that women work together communally and engage in “consensus-building” (Alexander and Andersen Reference Alexander and Andersen1993), research by Bauer, Yong, and Krupnikov (Reference Bauer, Yong and Krupnikov2017) demonstrated that women legislators are not consistently facing a backlash for failing to conform to the gender stereotypes of setting aside differences and compromising. They found that the degree of backlash that legislators receive for failing to compromise is conditional on partisanship (i.e., which can “insulate” legislators from the criticism) and issue topic (i.e., women can face backlash on issues not considered “female-owned”). Moreover, when voters express a preference for bipartisanship or compromise, they want the other side to adopt their own position (Harbridge, Malhotra, and Harrison Reference Harbridge, Malhotra and Harrison2014). This suggests that in the current polarized political environment, there may be greater incentives for women legislators to act as partisans, first and foremost, and that they may have additional insulation from criticism on issues traditionally thought to be women’s issues (e.g., sexual harassment and assault). Because research has shown that women’s issues are entrenched in the partisan divide (Swers Reference Swers2016), we therefore might expect that legislators’ partisanship shapes their attention to women’s issues, including sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND THE #METOO MOVEMENT

One women’s issue that has received considerable attention since 2017 is sexual harassment and assault. In the fall of 2017, the hashtag #MeToo went viral. In early October, Ashley Judd accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault in a story reported in the New York Times. Approximately 10 days later, Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted, write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” That is the moment when #MeToo became a movement. Sexual harassment and assault in the entertainment industry, sports, and government were brought to light. Accusations against Roy Moore, a Republican candidate for the US Senate from Alabama, emerged in early November. Matt Lauer, the “Today Show” cohost, was fired after allegations surfaced about his sexual misconduct. On December 6, Time Magazine even named “Silence Breakers” as its 2017 “Person of the Year,” paying homage to the women who had come out publicly about these incidents. More recently, allegations of sexual assault and violence engulfed the confirmation hearings surrounding US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

After #MeToo became a movement, many politicians tweeted about it and shared their own personal stories of sexual harassment. We lack an understanding, however, of which members of Congress were more likely to support this movement and those who were more likely to stay silent. Some scholarship, however, suggests that women will be more likely to discuss #MeToo on Twitter because they have been more likely to discuss women’s issues in general. Evans and Clark (Reference Evans and Clark2016), for instance, showed that women—regardless of their party identification—were more likely to tweet about women’s issues during the 2012 election and that the broader definition included discussing rape and domestic violence.

However, there are reasons to think that the #MeToo movement might be discussed equally by both men and women in Congress. First, like many current political issues, it is possible that partisanship has more influence over what representatives discuss on Twitter than gender. Conversely, given the gendered aspect to this particular policy issue—specifically, the fact that women tend to be the victims of harassment and men the perpetrators—we might expect this to be one area in which women will join in solidarity instead of reacting in a partisan manner. Social identity theory, first conceived by Tajfel (Reference Tajfel1974), suggests that women will react to these events together because an individual’s self-concept is derived from her social-group membership (in this case, gender). Women should encourage one another to discuss these cases of sexual harassment in much the same way that the theory suggests group members should prioritize in-group objectives (Hogg and Terry Reference Hogg and Terry2001).

Second, research demonstrates that gender has a significant impact on not only whether people believe sexual harassment has happened but also what the outcomes of such cases should be (DeSouza and Solberg Reference DeSouza and Solberg2004; Weber, Bauer, and Martinez Reference Weber, Bauer and Martinez2012). Women are more likely to seek harsher punishments for those who have been accused of sexual harassment and assault, especially if those women work in more male-dominated fields (Weber, Bauer, and Martinez Reference Weber, Bauer and Martinez2012). This indicates that women in Congress, who have chosen careers that are more historically male dominated, also may have stronger opinions about the #MeToo movement and discuss it more often on social media.

DATA AND METHODS

To examine congressional attention to the #MeToo movement, we compiled an original dataset of all tweets sent by members of the US House and the US Senate from October 2017 to June 2018, which represents the period when the #MeToo movement went viral.^{Footnote 1} We then coded the tweets for whether they used the #MeToo hashtag.^{Footnote 2} About 11% of legislators (i.e., 60 representatives and senators combined) tweeted about the #MeToo movement. Figure 1 is an example of a tweet by Senator Mazie Hirono dated October 20, 2017.

Figure 1

#MeToo Tweet Example

Congress members tweeting about #MeToo represent both parties and cross the ideological spectrum. Among the Democratic women in the US Senate are senators Claire McCaskill, Mazie Hirono, and Heidi Heitkamp. Male senators and representatives also tweet about #MeToo, including moderate Republican Representative John Carter and liberal Democratic Representative Ted Lieu.

A table included in the online appendix shows the general breakdown of legislators’ tweeting about #MeToo across different groups: 41 representatives compared to 19 senators; 53 Democrats and seven Republicans, including 35 female and 25 male legislators. These raw numbers suggest that the #MeToo movement among members of Congress may be driven most by partisanship; although more women than men are tweeting about #MeToo, it does not seem like an overwhelmingly female phenomenon.

There is a broad array of legislators tweeting about the #MeToo movement; however, examining how gender, partisanship, and ideology shape their activity requires systematic analysis of how these factors relate to their tweets. Accordingly, we merged data on legislators’ background and ideological position with our Twitter dataset. Specifically, we included indicators for members’ gender, partisan affiliation, ideology (using DW-NOMINATE scores), and number of terms served. We compiled data for both the US House and the US Senate; therefore, we estimated separate models for each chamber. The dependent variable of each model was whether the member tweeted about #MeToo.^{Footnote 3} Because it is a dichotomous variable, we estimated logistic-regression models.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

To view supplementary material for this article, please visit https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096519001124