Did women's suffrage change the size and scope of government?

This paper examines the growth of government during this century as a resul t of giving women the right to vote. Using cross-sectional time-series data for 1870-1940, we examine state government expenditures and revenue as wel l as voting by U.S. House and Senate state delegations and the passage of a wide range of different state laws. Suffrage coincided with immediate incr eases in state government expenditures and revenue and more liberal voting patterns for federal representatives, and these effects continued growing o ver time as more women took advantage of the franchise. Contrary to many re cent suggestions, the gender gap is not something that has arisen since the 1970s, and it helps explain why American government started growing when i t did.