Special Elections and the Growth of Women's Representation in the U.S. House of Representatives

Abstract

High incumbency return rates slow the pace at which underrepresented groups can increase their ratio of membership in the U.S. House of Representatives. We document the fact that the special election process provides an important source of congressional turnover which is particularly advantageous to women seeking to win election to the House. In fact, we document that over one-third of all women entering the House during the decade studied entered through special elections. If women are to increase their proportion in the House of Representatives, either the size of the House needs to be increased or seates held by men must be replaced with seats held by women. As there is little chance that the size of the House will increase, women will have to replace men. This is, of course, happening, but at a very slow rate. Though many factors affect women's recruitment into the House, part of the problem is that incumbents, currently 89.2% men, seem to turn over at a very slow rate. In the 1988 election (a high point for incumbent return rates), only 7.6% of the Congress was new. Retention, it is argued, creates few opportunities for women, and other underrepresented groups, to enter Congress. However, conclusions about the relationship between turnover and the election of women based on biannual elections alone are incomplete because such explanations do not account for the influence of special elections.