Female Polticians: Surprisingly Effective (At Porking)

By Mande Wilkes

Remember back when I said that women were to blame for bad politics, overreaching governance, and the excessive nitpicky hand-holding of the American people?  No?  None of that ostensibly “spot on” analysis ringing a bell?

Well, in case anybody forgot, here’s the link.

And yeah … it turns out I was wrong.  Way off base.  You see, I was referring specifically to female voters, when it turns out the problem is female politicians.

According to a new study released by Stanford University and the University of Chicago, female politicians are much more “effective” – that’s the way the study frames it – than their male counterparts.

From The Politico:

…On average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.

The study, which examined the performance of House members between 1984 and 2004, found that women delivered roughly 9 percent more discretionary spending for their districts than men.

So, that’s 1-0 for the girls’ team, right?  Females are indeed the more effective legislator (where effective legislator = efficient purveyor of nanny statism and dedicated parent-by-proxy of the citizenry).

Perhaps most telling of all is the media’s framing of the study. Just look at the Politico headline: ”Women Lawmakers Outperform Men.”  Sure they do, if the metric of political performance is number of bills introduced or amount of taxpayer money pork-ified.

Call me crazy, but political “outperformance” means less pork money and less legislation – not more.

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