17
presented in Table 4 are those from analyses probing for interactions between Proportion of
Women and Sex. Only Time Speaking evidences an interaction effect; as Proportion of Women
increases, Time Speaking decreases to a greater degree for women than for men. Given that only
Time Speaking evidences an interaction, the main effect of Proportion of Women rather than its
interaction with Sex stands out. As Proportion of Women increases, participatory style tends to
shift for all participants, that is, for both sexes. Stated differently, as Proportion of Women
increases women and men alike tend towards less masculine participatory styles.
All regressions on participatory style used a three-level model (speaking turn, participant,
committee). The dependent variable was always the participatory style variable.
Discussion
Behind our analysis is a larger question of how participation in extra-curricular
activities might contribute to the historic and continuing under-representation of women in
elected political leadership. Verba et al (1997) find that the presence of female politicians in
a state enhances political knowledge among women, and political knowledge gaps may be
narrowing among younger adults as noted earlier. Nonetheless, women still make up only
14 percent of the current U.S. Congress and 21 percent of state legislators, and among
young elected leaders (814 members of Congress, statewide elected officers, state
legislators, and mayors of larger cities who are age 35 years or younger) women still
comprise only 14 percent (Eagleton 2003). In a sense, our research investigates whether
there are important gendered lessons learned in elite extra-curricular political activities
Convention