Research Projects:

I am currently focusing my research on three somewhat related aspects of the issue of women's representation in Brazil.

• The Role of Institutions in the Under-Representation of Women in Brazilian Legislatures: Using Historical Institutionalism to explore the ways in which the Brazilian political system has systematically put women at a disadvantage when vying for elected office. This research agenda includes a detailed discussion of the institutional aspects that made the 1996 Brazilian quota law virtually unenforceable and how the 2009 mini-political reform sought to solve some of the key issues surrounding the quota law.

• Dilma Rouseff, Brazil's First Female President: Does the election of a woman president affect various aspects of female representation in a country? Using the 2010 election of Dilma Rouseff to Brazil's presidency, we seek to explore what impact this election (and her administration) had (and has) on the descriptive, substantive, and symbolic representation of women in Brazil's political system.

• Women's Representation at the Sub-National Level: The bulk of the literature on women's descriptive representation (the election of women) focuses on national level legislatures. I argue that in order to fully understand how (and why) women are present in national legislatures we must first understand the path they take to get there. In my research I seek to understand the differences and similarities in running for local and state legislative elected seats in Brazil, comparing and contrasting them with the elections to the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil's lower house) and outlining the ways in which gender plays a factor in these electoral competitions.