Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Prior research indicates that minority group members in the United States Congress generally are more supportive and collaborative within their respective groups compared to their majority group counterparts, yet this characteristic does not always portend legislative success for minority group policy issues. By applying social network analysis and statistical tests of cosponsorship activity data for the 110th Congress, this study examines the nature of House and Senate gender-based group network characteristics and their potential to affect legislative output. Specifically, the results demonstrate that female congressmembers display statistically significant higher group cohesion and centrality metrics, but their success rate in passing measures through their respective House and Senate Chambers is lower than their percentage of House and Senate representation. These results suggest that factors other than intra-group support and collaboration affect female-sponsored legislative outputs.