WOMEN IN THE STATE LEGISLATIVE POWER-STRUCTURE - COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Objective. The purpose of the study is to determine whether elected wo men are denied access to the power and authority provided by chairing stars legislative committees by the more numerous males seeking to mai ntain their hegemony. Methods. The probability that a member will be s elected to chair a committee in the 99 state legislative chambers is d ependent on the state, the chamber, the member's party, whether or rio t the member is in a first term, and the member's sea. State legislati ve committee chairs are selected from 394 distinct pools, The empirica l probability of a woman being selected as a committee chair was summe d across all pools for thc chamber and across all chambers. Results. W omen were found to be chairing their lair share of committees. This wa s not affected by the method of chair selection. Women continue to cha ir a disproportionate number of education, health, and social and huma n services committees but also chaired their fair share of the importa nt fiscal committees and were not generally underrepresented among bus iness committee chairs, Conclusions. So the extent thar committee chai rs represent successful access to power and authority within the legis lature, and most observers think they do, then women have gained their fair share.