Unrealized Opportunity? Term Limits and the Representation of Women in State Legislatures

Abstract

Using data from the state legislative elections of 1998 and 2000, this article examines empirically the expectation prevalent in the women and politics literature that the implementation of term limits will lead to increases in the numbers of women legislators. At the state house level, in both elections more women were forced to leave state house seats because of term limits than were elected to house seats that were vacated by term-limited incumbents. In contrast, at the state senate level, women increased their numbers in term-limited seats in 1998 and maintained their numbers in 2000. Thus far, women have fared better in term-limited seats for state senates than for state houses because of a “pipeline” effect whereby some women representatives who have been term-limited out or who face a term-limited future have successfully taken advantage of opportunities to seek senate seats that opened up because of term limits.

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