Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States

Cutting-edge research on the intersection of race, gender, and politics

Traditionally, there has been a significant lack of empirical attention given to the ways in which race/ethnicity, gender, and political representation overlap. Intersectionality and Politics is the groundbreaking collection of contemporary research and essays that applies the concept of intersectionality specifically to descriptive and substantive representation by African-American, Latino/a, and Asian-American elected officials. This unique compilation looks at numerous states and focuses on multiple racial/ethnic groups to demonstrate the importance of this theory for understanding the political leadership of people of color and women.

Intersectionality and Politics is the wide-ranging text that is both informative overview and thought-provoking analysis of a subject that has received little practical study. Articles in this important text cover a expansive gamutfrom women of color as elected officials and the changing face of leadership in America today to an exploration of the growing interest in intersectionality and a look toward the potential of future researchmaking it a useful and comprehensive one-stop resource.

Contributors to Intersectionality and Politics explore critical topics such as:

• the contours and context of descriptive representation with a focus on women of color
• the puzzle of women of color’s proportionately higher percentage of office holding in state legislatures
• agenda-setting behavior of African-American female state legislators
• the impact of race and gender on the likelihood of legislative bill submission and passage
• patterns of gendered representation and related legislative advocacy within Latino delegations in the Southwest
• new findings on the Latino/a gender gap
• the public policy implications of intersectionality theory
• and many more!

Complete with extensive bibliographies and a wealth of tables and figures to highlight the striking findings, Intersectionality and Politics is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students and educators in political science, ethnic studies, Latino/Black/Asian studies, gender studies, sociology, and women’s studies. Policymakers, politicians, and those working in high-minority areas will also find this to be an invaluable text.

Carol Hardy-Fanta, PhD, is Director of the Center forWomen in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies.Dr. Hardy-Fanta is the author of two books, and numerous articles. She is a nationally recognized scholar on Latina/o politics and has published widely on the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in politics and public policy.