Rethinking Women's Political Power in Pennsylvania

Existing research that focuses exclusively on women’s representation in elective offices, whether at or across levels, only reveals part of the complex landscape within which women seek, secure, and exercise political power of all types. Moreover, the over-reliance on purely quantitative approaches to assessing women’s political representation and power often obscures intersectional realities of gender with race and party. This paper draws from the Center for American Women and Politics’ (CAWP) latest research project on state political ecosystems to determine what accounts for the change (or lack thereof) in women’s political representation and power in the state of Pennsylvania between 2010 and 2023. Pennsylvania is a partisan battleground state in U.S. politics where women officeholders have increased since 2010, moving from 46th to 26th in the nation for women’s state legislative representation and adding five women to its congressional delegation since 2018. Despite these gains, Pennsylvania women have hit glass ceilings in statewide elective offices, the racial diversity of women officeholders remains limited, and white and male dominance persists in unelected positions of political power throughout the state. These dynamics, as well as the geographic diversity and political professionalism of the state, make it ripe for in-depth examination of women’s political power within complex state ecosystems. This paper relies primarily on over 40 interviews (already completed) with state political actors (officeholders, activists, party leaders, and women’s political organization leaders). This qualitative data is paired with extensive state-level data on women’s political candidacies and officeholding (by race and party), as well as available data on women’s representation in unelected positions of political power (e.g. staff, lobbyists, donors, and party leaders). The analysis leverages this data to demonstrate the methodological and theoretical value of measuring women’s political power in ways that go beyond numerical representation in elective offices. It will illustrate the importance of situating women’s political influence within complex ecosystems, as well as analyzing women’s access to and experience navigating political power along intersectional axes of gender, race, and political party. In doing so, this study offers contributions beyond its rich state-specific findings that are applicable across domestic and international borders.