Breaking Barriers To Representation: Chicana/Latina Elected Officials In California

Abstract

Latina political participation in the United States includes not only non-electoral community-based mobilization but grassroots electoral activism as well. Despite barriers of race, class, gender and culture, Latinas are penetrating formal political office, often after long careers as community advocates. In this article, the political trajectories and experiences of Latina elected officials in California are examined with a particular focus on their positions regarding gender and campaigns for a more participatory polity. The results of our survey of Latina representatives clearly demonstrates their support of feminist goals for equity between the sexes and between white women and women of color; less clear is their transcendence of legal and social norms defining who is entitled to participate in ballot box politics.

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