Gender-Driven Legislative Policymaking: The Case of Truancy

Do women legislate differently than men do? Much research has examined the influenceof women on public policy, with some research specifically focused on state legislatures.This research tends to focus on the question of whether women legislate more oftentowards women’s issues and feminist ideologies. Following Kathlene (1995), thisresearch seeks to identify whether women formulate public policy and legislatedifferently when it involves an area of public policy that is not a typically definedwomen’s issue, but rather in a gender-neutral area. I presented a newspaper articlediscussing the problems and issues of truancy in schools to nine Ohio General Assemblylegislators. I then interviewed each legislator about truancy and analyzed the interviews.The female and male legislators proposed different reasons for the causes of truancy, andtherefore different policy solutions as well. Analysis of 16 education bills proposed bymale and female legislators in the Ohio General Assembly provides some additionalsupport for the view that men and women do legislate differently, even on gender-neutraltopics.