Authors’ Response to Book Review of Race, Gender, and Political Representation: Toward a More Intersectional Approach

In Race, Gender, and Political Representation, Beth Reingold, Kerry L. Haynie, and Kirsten Widner push scholars of gender and race/ethnicity politics to consider the ways in which standard approaches obscure and erase the experiences of women of color in office. Noting that most work in these two subfields adheres to a “single-axis” approach (i.e., studying “women” and “people of color” as monolithic groups), the authors advocate for a more intersectional approach to the study of representation, which acknowledges that race and gender are inextricably linked. The authors make the compelling case that we cannot really understand the consequences of women’s inclusion in political office without considering race, nor can we understand the consequences of the inclusion of people of color in office without considering gender. By explicitly considering the legislative behaviors of Blackwomen and Latinas (along with those of white men/women, Black men, and Latinos), Reingold, Haynie, and Widner center these legislators’ experiences to examine the constraints they face, their policy impact, and the factors underpinning their emergence in office. In doing so, the authors offer us a richer understanding of who speaks for which groups, how, and under what conditions. Throughout the book, the authors reveal shortcomings of failing to account for the influence of race-gender and forcefully argue that understanding the intersections of these identities offers us a deeper, and ultimately more accurate, understanding of political representation. The book’s first chapter lays out Reingold, Haynie, and Widner’s argument that an intersectional approach is necessary for our understanding of political representation. This chapter evaluates the current state of the gender and politics and race/ethnicity politics literature and elucidates why an intersectional approach is necessary for both fields. This chapter will challenge readers