All in the family? Assessing the impact of child gender on congressional behavior

We examine the impact of having a daughter on the legislative behavior of members of Congress using original biographical data from 1973 to 2015. Previous research has produced mixed results. We leverage the random assignment of child sex as a natural experiment and expand the analysis by incorporating members' overall roll call voting, voting on women's issues, and sponsorship of women's issues bills. We also replicate and extend Ebonya Washington's analyis that, using a more restricted sample, finds having a daughter liberalizes legislator voting on women's issues. We show that having a daughter has no discernible influence on sponsorship patterns, and that influence on roll call voting is inconsistent and contextual.

Automated summary

Using original biographical data from 1973 to 2015, we examine the impact of having a daughter on the legislative behavior of members of Congress. Leveraging random assignment of child sex as a natural experiment, we expand the analysis to include overall roll call voting, voting on women's issues, and sponsorship of women's issues bills. Our study replicates and extends previous findings, showing that having a daughter does not significantly influence sponsorship patterns, and the influence on roll call voting is inconsistent and contextual.