(Page 2 of 25) - Race, Gender, and Descriptive Representation in the US: An Exploratory View of Multicultural Elected Leadership in the United States authored by Hardy-Fanta, Carol., Sierra, Christine M., Lien, Pei-te., Pinderhughes, Dianne M. and Davis, Wartyna L.

Race, Gender and Descriptive Representation: An Exploratory View of Multicultural Elected Leadership in the United States,
C. Hardy-Fanta, C. Sierra, P. Lien , D. Pinderhughes, and W. Davis. APSA 9/3/05.

Introduction

As the twenty-first century unfolds, two dominant narratives regarding the incorporation

of people of color into America’s governing institutions emerge. On the one hand, American
democracy has produced dramatic increases in the number of people of color—men and women -
- who serve as elected officials. Given the increasingly diverse racial and ethnic composition of
the American electorate, the presence and influence of America’s racial and ethnic minorities in
its governing structures promise to increase. On the other hand, patterns of underrepresentation
at the local, state, and federal levels persist for these populations. Ultimately, the extent to which
America’s ethnoracial groups become incorporated into the political system and how that
incorporation occurs will test the strength and resilience of American democracy in responding
to demographic change.

This paper addresses this two-fold narrative through a descriptive analysis of some broad

features of America’s multicultural leadership in elective office. With its main focus on African
American, Hispanic, and Asian American elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels
(with some information on American Indians serving in state legislatures), the paper presents
trends in minority office-holding and preliminary assessments of descriptive representation
achieved by each racial group, a look at the geographical or spatial landscape of the nation’s
multicultural elected leadership, and discussion of contextual variables associated with minority
group representation, particularly the impact of the Voting Rights Act and the role of majority-
minority districts.

Emerging from the data are the following propositions. First, overall trends in minority

office-holding show increases in elective positions held by all of the groups in the study. At least
for one racial group (African Americans), the growth in elected leadership is, in fact, driven by
the increase of women in office. Second, the challenge of underrepresentation faces all the
groups but there are differences among them in descriptive representation. In this regard, women
of color play a significant role in the achievement of descriptive representation for the racial
groups. Third, though America’s multicultural leadership is expanding in number, the sharing of
leadership space among ethnoracial populations appears limited. At the same time, the local level
of politics appears to provide an opportunity structure for inter-minority coalition building. And,
fourth, the role of majority-minority districts created from passage of the Voting Rights Act
figures prominently in the election of people of color.

This paper emerges as part of a larger project on elected officials of color in the United

States. The research project also includes the administration of a telephone survey of a
nationwide sample of African American, Latino/a, and Asian American elected officials at the
state and local levels to examine their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives on their
representational roles and public policies. An important aspect of the project devotes special
attention to the role women of color play in the exercise of representative government and
democratic politics. We posit that a theoretical focus on women of color in particular will
advance knowledge in new directions with respect to the functioning of American electoral and
governing structures and processes. In the end, our research seeks to address both aspects of the
democratic challenge—the promise and impact of America’s changing and increasingly