Representing Families and Children: Parenthood and Policymaking

• In Event: The Difference Women Make: Inclusion, Representation, and Public Policy

Abstract

It is well established that individual identity characteristics such as race, ethnicity, and gender influence the types of legislation that Members of Congress pursue; however, there is little exploration of identity beyond these standard measures. This paper examines the role of parenthood as identity and how this influences the pursuit of children and family-centered policies. Using bill data from 1993-2014 and biographical data on Members of Congress, this paper tests whether Members of Congress who are parents of minor children (defined as under 18 years of age) while serving in Congress more effectively represent the interests of working parents by sponsoring more family-centered legislation than those members who have no children or are parents of adult children (over 18 years of age). The authors of this paper found that working mothers of minors introduce more child and family-centered legislation than adult children (Bryant and Marin Hellwege 2018), but we expand that research to include fathers. We also test whether or not there are differences between working moms and dads in Congress, focusing on the number of bills they sponsor and the issue areas they represent and perform exploratory analysis on whether or not there are differences in the topics of bills they are introducing. Preliminary results from a subset of the data suggest that having young children in the home does influence the behavior of MCs in their policy pursuits and bill topic may vary between mothers and fathers.

Authors

• Julia Marin Hellwege, University of South Dakota

• Lisa A. Bryant, California State University, Fresno