Date of Award

5-2018

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Public Administration and Policy

Advisor/Committee Chair

Patricia Strach

Abstract

This paper utilizes data obtained from the New York State Senate spanning five elections between 2008 and 2016 to determine if gender impacts election outcomes. More specifically, I attempt to understand if the New York State Senate matches the common belief in the literature that women tend to fare less well than men in elections, and female Democrats have greater success than female Republicans in winning elections. By focusing on the New York State Senate, I seek to uncover whether the idiosyncrasies of New York State politics are reflected in any distinctions from the prominent conclusions made in the literature which utilize meta-analyses of several state legislatures. This paper uses linear regression models with controls including incumbency status, campaign funding, number of donors, year and district fixed effects as well as gender and political party interactions in order to discover an association between gender and election success. The strongest finding conveys that women Democrats tend to win New York State Senate elections less often than all other candidates.

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