Krista Jenkins

Searching for the Meaning of Youth Civic Engagement: Notes from the Field

This article reports on the early lessons from a multiphase, multimethod study of youth civic engagement. We use insights from expert discussions along with a series of focus groups to explore how young adults approach politics, volunteerism, community, civic duty, and generational identity. We find many of the distinguishing characteristics of the todays youth to be subtle and nuanced, which poses unique challenges for quantitative research of the generation. The important implications of language are discussed in detail.

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.

Do term limits help women get elected

Objective. We examine the proposition put forward by term limit advocates and some scholars that the implementation of term limits will lead to increases in the numbers of women serving in state legislatures. Methods. Data are examined for all state house races in the six states that implemented term limits in 1998. Results. Although there was some variation across the states, the overall number of women serving in state house seats that were term‐limited actually decreased following the election. Conclusions. More research is needed as more states implement term limits in future elections. However, our analysis suggests that term limits, unaccompanied by efforts to recruit women to run for term‐limited seats, may be insufficient to increase the number of women state legislators.