AMERICAN POLITICS & PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP
Abstract: Descriptive representation is vital for ensuring that the voices of marginalized groups are reflected in public policies. Though numerous studies examine the descriptive characteristics of legislators, less is known about the diversity of their staffs, who are unelected individuals with vast opportunities for influencing the policymaking process. Recent research on staff representation mostly focuses on personal staff. Studies on committee staffers, who are arguably more consequential for policymaking, are limited and incomplete, relying heavily on survey data or data from limited timeframes. Accordingly, we assemble the most comprehensive dataset on committee staffers over time, collecting data on both gender (1950 – 2023) and race (2009 – 2023) to systematically track descriptive representation. We supplement this data with information on salary, position type, tenure, and promotion to further characterize potential disparities among committee staffers by race and gender. Finally, we examine which institutional and political factors can advance or inhibit diverse and equitable workforces across congressional committees. Overall, this project will shed light on the efficacy of representative democracy in the United States, particularly with respect to incorporating the voices of traditionally marginalized groups.
Sharece Thrower is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and currently serves as an associate editor at the American Political Science Review. Her research interests include American political institutions, separation of powers politics, inter-branch policymaking, and executive power. She is a co-author of the book Checks in the Balance: Legislative Capacity and the Dynamics of Executive Power (Princeton University Press, 2022), which received the 2022 Alan Rosenthal Prize and the 2023 Richard E. Neustadt Award. She is currently working on her second book project, which will investigate the relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government at both the federal and state level. Prior to arriving at Vanderbilt, Thrower was an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh from 2013 to 2016. She earned her Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University in 2013 and her BA in political science and economics from The Ohio State University in 2008.
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