REPRESENTATION MATTERS—
IN GOVERNMENT AND IN DATA
The Politics of Parenthood (POP) dataset is the first to include ability, caregiving, and parental status, making it the most comprehensive publicly available demographic dataset of state and federal legislators in the United States
Vote Mama Foundation is the only organization tracking the number of mothers with minor children serving in state and federal legislatures across the country.
Politics of Parenthood
Along with the ambition gap, studies have examined gender bias in politics, that women feel less qualified, and that women are less likely to be encouraged to run in the first place.
When women run, they win at the same rates as men. So why aren't more women running?
Caregiving creates cultural, financial, and logistical barriers that are more likely to impact women than men running for and serving in office. As Silvana Koch-Mehrin, the founder of Women in Parliaments Global Forum said, “female politicians tend to start their careers later, have fewer children, spend more time caring for their families, and arrange their lives to have shorter commuting times than their male counterparts. [...] Family commitments still constitute a major source of concern for women.”
We don't have an ambition gap as much as we have a care gap.
Men are expected to work like they have no caregiving responsibilities, and as author Amy Westervelt wrote, “we expect women to work like they don’t have children, and raise children as if they don’t work.” No one should have to choose between their work and their family—but for some, serving as a legislator or having children can be a mutually exclusive choice. The political system is not designed for caregivers.
Being a parent or caregiver is often a fundamental motivator for political action, and it should not contribute to the inaccessibility of political office. Our political system, which pressures parents and caregivers to diminish—or give up completely—that crucial aspect of their identity, is a system in which we pressure our politicians to diminish their humanity.
The system is broken, and the first step in fixing it is naming the problem.
Caregiving.
“If I wasn’t here, my children wouldn’t see a representation of themselves... Not only my children, but a lot of children like them can see themselves having a seat at the table someday because we are opening that door for them.”
ILHAN OMAR, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (MN-05), New York Times
WE HAVE TO ADDRESS THE CARE GAP
If we want to elect more legislators who understand at a visceral level how our policies affect most Americans—working people, women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, young people—we have to modernize our legislatures.
2.
Create family and medical leave policies for legislators to care for themselves and their families with pay and without stigma.
3.
Allow legislators to vote and attend committee hearings virtually so they can perform their duties remotely when they or their families have increased care needs.
4.
Ensure legislators and their staff have access to quality, affordable, onsite childcare.
5.
Install changing tables in legislators’ bathrooms, regardless of gender, and ensure accessibility of pumping rooms in legislative buildings.
6.
Form Mamas’ Caucuses in state legislatures across the country.
7.
Ensure state legislative positions are full-time jobs that pay living wages.
8.
Provide state legislators with per diems to cover childcare costs incurred as a result of their official duties.
1.
Allow candidates at all officelevels to use campaign funds to pay for childcare, dependent care, and health insurance premiums, and to pay themselves a living wage.
Key Findings
The Care Gap
"Government at any level was not designed for women, let alone mothers. When I ran for Congress, I was constantly questioned on the campaign trail. ‘Who will take care of the kids?’ ‘Have you thought about how this will impact your family?’ I don’t think men running for office get asked these questions."
BECCA BALINT, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (VT-AT LARGE)
ABOUT THE DATASET
Politics of Parenthood is a dataset of robust demographics for state and federal legislators. Variables include but are not limited to: date elected to current office, education, previous occupation, age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, ability status, parental status, age of youngest child, and caregiving status. Data are collected through extensive monitoring of news and social media and build on the work of other organizations. Our aim is to provide nuanced and accessible data suited for both research and public communication.
While data for federal legislators are much more readily available than for state legislators, there is a paucity of information available about aspects of identity that are vital to policy making, particularly parenthood, caregiving, and ability status. For this reason, we focused on including these variables for federal legislators. Because the dataset relies on publicly available information, however, it is not infallible or exhaustive.
ABOUT REPRESENTATION
We evaluate representativeness in terms of the population. We consider equitable representation to be achieved when the share of a demographic in Congress is similar to that of the adult population in the United States. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all population-level statistics are derived from 2020 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year Estimate Public Use Microdata.
It is important to note that this definition is not intended to be a measure of ideal representation—it may not be enough to adequately center the needs of vulnerable populations or even provide protection from outright harms. Proportional representation should be our baseline, but it does not have to be our end goal.
ABOUT THE DATASET
WHO IS INCLUDED IN THE DATASET?
The Politics of Parenthood dataset includes all members of the 118th Congress. Though the focus of this report is on federal legislators, the dataset also includes all state legislators in office as of August 2022 who use she/her or they/them pronouns.
WHO IS A MAMA?
Mamas are cis and trans women with biological children, foster children, step-children, and formally or informally adopted children under the age of 18. In this report, we also refer to mamas interchangeably as moms of minor kids or mothers of minor children. Though our research focus is on the political participation of mamas, the dataset includes parental status for all included legislators, regardless of their gender or the age of their youngest child.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
Vote Mama Foundation launched the pilot phase of the Politics of Parenthood Survey in early 2022 to confirm the information included in the dataset and expand on details that are not publicly available for all, or even most, legislators. In addition to information about parenthood, the survey aimed to identify state legislators who are primary caregivers for people other than their minor children (i.e. an elderly parent or an adult child with care needs) and asked about their experiences related to the cost and accessibility of child and dependent care. Vote Mama Foundation is using this pilot survey to inform future research directions that will rely more heavily on qualitative data about state legislators, motherhood, and caregiving.
Vote Mama Foundation launched Politics of Parenthood to answer a seemingly simple question: How many mothers with kids under 18 are serving as legislators?
It quickly became apparent that answering this question would be a complex process. Despite the fact that gender equity in politics is a widely researched topic, there has been very little research on the political participation of mothers and no data available on the representation of mothers serving as legislators at any level of government - until now. With Politics of Parenthood, Vote Mama Foundation is closing this gap in research.
Mothers comprise an all-but-unexplored population that is critical to understand, not just as a subpopulation of women but as a distinct population in its own right that is integral to a well-functioning government and to achieving gender equity in politics.
Just as lived experience affects how policy is approached, it affects how we assess and solve problems, but the reality is our legislators are charged with solving challenges that most have never personally faced.
American policies were not designed to support mothers because they were not created by them.
With detailed demographic data now publicly available, Vote Mama Foundation will continue to expand our research in identifying, analyzing, and breaking down barriers that systematically exclude moms with young children from accessing political positions of power. The data presented here is long overdue, but it is just the beginning of our collective understanding of the experience of being both a legislator and a caretaker.
We need to listen to mamas, not just describe them.
This research inspires many new questions, but it can also provide many answers - more than one organization can begin to uncover. While Vote Mama Foundation’s analysis focuses on the intersection of motherhood and political participation, it is our intention for this data to benefit all those working toward an equitable and accountable political system.
Our aim is to provide nuanced and accessible data suited for both research and public communication. Data are collected through extensive monitoring of news and social media and build on the work of other organizations. Because the data relies on publicly available information, it is not infallible or exhaustive. However, to the knowledge of Vote Mama Foundation, it is the largest and most complete demographic dataset of legislators in the U.S.
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Legislators include: all state legislators who use she/her or they/them pronouns in office as of August 2022 and all members of the 118th Congress as of April 2023.
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Variables include: date elected to current office, education, previous occupation, age, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, marital status, ability status, parental status, number of children, age of youngest child, and caregiving status.
Politics of Parenthood is a dataset of robust demographics for state and federal legislators.
-
Mamas are cis and trans women with biological children, foster children, step-children, and formally or informally adopted children under the age of 18. We also refer to mamas interchangeably as moms of minor kids or mothers of minor children. Though our research focus is on the political participation of mamas, the dataset includes parental status for all included legislators, regardless of their gender or the age of their youngest child.
We evaluate representativeness in terms of the population. We consider equitable representation to be achieved when the share of a demographic in a legislature is similar to that of the adult population in the United States. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all population-level statistics are derived from 2020 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year Estimate Public Use Microdata.
It is important to note that this definition is not intended to be a measure of ideal representation—it may not be enough to adequately center the needs of vulnerable populations or even provide protection from outright harm. Proportional representation should be our baseline, but it does not have to be our end goal.
If we want to elect more legislators who understand at a visceral level how our policies affect most Americans—working people, women, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ people, young people—we have to modernize our legislatures.
1.
Allow candidates at all officelevels to use campaign funds to pay for childcare, dependent care, and health insurance premiums, and to pay themselves a living wage.
2.
Create family and medical leave policies for legislators to care for themselves and their families with pay and without stigma.
3.
Allow legislators to vote and attend committee hearings virtually so they can perform their duties remotely when they or their families have increased care needs.
4.
Ensure legislators and their staff have access to quality, affordable, onsite childcare.
5.
Install changing tables in legislators’ bathrooms, regardless of gender, and ensure accessibility of pumping rooms in legislative buildings.
6.
Form Mamas’ Caucuses in state legislatures across the country.
7.
Ensure state legislative positions are full-time jobs that pay living wages.
8.
Provide state legislators with per diems to cover childcare costs incurred as a result of their official duties.
WE HAVE TO ADDRESS THE CARE GAP
Learn more about modernizing Congress:
Learn more about modernizing state legislatures:
Along with the ambition gap, studies have examined gender bias in politics, that women feel less qualified, and that women are less likely to be encouraged to run in the first place. When women run, they win at the same rates as men, so why aren’t more women running?
When women run, they win at the same rates as men. So why aren't more women running?
Caregiving creates cultural, financial, and logistical barriers that are more likely to impact women than men running for and serving in office. As Silvana Koch-Mehrin, the founder of Women in Parliaments Global Forum said, “female politicians tend to start their careers later, have fewer children, spend more time caring for their families, and arrange their lives to have shorter commuting times than their male counterparts. [...] Family commitments still constitute a major source of concern for women.”
We don't have an ambition gap as much as we have a care gap.
Men are expected to work like they have no caregiving responsibilities, and as author Amy Westervelt wrote, “we expect women to work like they don’t have children, and raise children as if they don’t work.” No one should have to choose between their work and their family—but for some, serving as a legislator or having children can be a mutually exclusive choice. The political system is not designed for caregivers.
Being a parent or caregiver is often a fundamental motivator for political action, and it should not contribute to the inaccessibility of political office. Our political system, which pressures parents and caregivers to diminish—or give up completely—that crucial aspect of their identity, is a system in which we pressure our politicians to diminish their humanity.
The system is broken, and the first step in fixing it is naming the problem.
Caregiving.