Women's Descriptive Representation and Public Procurement Policy in Maryland

• In Event: Lightning Round: Undergraduate Student Research

Abstract

This paper seeks to determine whether the different levels of Maryland state government with varying levels of women’s descriptive representation change what procurement policies are enacted and how they benefit women. To do this, first, I review the power of procurement and how it historically has been used to advance social justice issues. The particular policy this paper focuses on is Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) program. Enacted in 1978, Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise program is the oldest in the country. The legislation was passed to ensure that small, minority- and women-owned firms have a fair chance to participate in state-funded projects. Then, I review previous literature on descriptive representation, focusing on Democratic women’s representation and the key ways of identifying feminist policy. I’ll make the case that, due to previous literature, we should expect descriptive representation to impact MBE policies depending on what level of government they are being discussed on. To do this, I apply these theories to public procurement in Maryland, explaining how the policies I’m looking at concern feminist policy and how women’s representation in the state government accounts for where these policies are enacted and upheld. In tracing the sequence of events of two case studies that culminated in these policies being discussed and passed, I’ll look to see where women’s descriptive representation in the Maryland Legislature promotes public procurement policies that benefit women more than the rest of the state government, which has less robust descriptive representation. In comparing the two, I find that there is a link between electing Democrat women to positions of power, in both the legislative and the executive branches, and building a government that champions this policy that increases the quality of life for women in Maryland.

Author

• Emily Thompson, Tufts University