Do term limits help women get elected?

Objective. We examine the proposition pur forward by term limit advocates a nd some scholars that the implementation of term limits will lead to increa ses in the numbers of women serving in state legislatures. Methods. Data ar e examined for all state house races in the six states that implemented ter m limits in 1998. Results. Although there was some variation across the sta tes, the overall number of women serving in state house seats char were ter m-limited actually decreased following the election. Conclusions. More rese arch is needed as more states implement term limits in future elections. Ho wever, our analysis suggests that term limits, unaccompanied by efforts to recruit women to run for term-limited seats, may be insufficient to increas e the number of women state legislators.