Breaking: Women Are Effective Lawmakers

Published September 15, 2009 @ 10:29PM PT

I love it when mainstream media acts surprised about the idea that women are good at - their job?

Read this "intriguing" report from Politico this week - Study: Women lawmakers outperform men.

It kills me that this is considered breaking news. But anyways...

Take a read as to why Politico is suddenly having it's feminist awakening:

Are women more effective lawmakers than men?

That's the preliminary conclusion of a study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago, who say that on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.

The study, which examined the performance of House members between 1984 and 2004, found that women delivered roughly 9 percent more discretionary spending for their districts than men.

I'm happy with this report in essence, but it's almost condescending in it's approach. As if women shouldn't be as good or better as men in creating laws? Why do we still question this?

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Comments (4)

Its sad and very disappointing to me that the male chauvinistic attitudes of old are still prevalent in our society when they should have died out long before the dinosaurs did.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/16/2009 @ 12:55PM PT
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Anyone who's job it is to run a houselhold (these days you need a secretary just for the paperwork involved) and grows up children, with the negotiating skills that involves, deserves an honourary doctorate in law, whether they are male or female.

Posted by Oceania OZ on 09/16/2009 @ 05:12PM PT
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Wow! What great news! We're good at our jobs!! Hooray!!

Now if only we could get paid proportionately...

Posted by Lisa Smolen on 09/18/2009 @ 07:38AM PT
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To be honest, this is newsworthy. The differences Politico mentions are not minor.

9 Percent more money for their districts? When you consider that most congresswomen are democrats and the GOP controlled the house for half of the study, and the fact that men have had disproportionate seniority (which is a factor in getting money), this is a BIG difference.

Also Politico said that women introduce, on average 3 more bills than men; that is a almost 20% difference, which is quite significant (the average for all members was about 17 in the last house of representatives).

Its not a surprise that women can outperform men by some degree or another at any given job, but that's not what Politico is reporting on. What they are saying, and what is a surprise, is that gender is a DISTINCT predictor of performance.

Posted by Samuel Eschenbrenner on 10/29/2009 @ 06:28PM PT
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Author

Jen Nedeau is a social media consultant, progressive activist, feminist speaker and writer. She currently lives in New York City, where she works full-time as the Director of Digital Strategy at Air America Media. In August 2008, Nedeau was selected to be the Editor of the WomensRights.Change.Org where she facilitates daily discussion about the feminist movement. Additionally, Nedeau volunteers as the Chief Technology Officer for New Leaders Council, a non-profit that offers exclusive training for young leaders. You can follow her on Twitter @HumanFolly or learn more here: www.jennedeau.com.