
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 505-277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu
Nov. 1, 2007
The Changing Face of Power
Leadership Study Explores Roles of Race and Gender in 21 st Century Politics
A team of political scientists recently completed the Gender and Multi-Cultural Leadership Project, an exploration into how race and gender affects 21 st century politics. They will present their findings on Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
The face of leadership is changing the political landscape of the United States, however, the nation knows little about elected officials of color. This groundbreaking study redefines leaders in the 21 st century.The survey shows that people of color – especially those serving at the grassroots level – are the pipeline to the future of governance. The survey examines the personal backgrounds, paths to public office, representational roles, and policy stands on key issues of pressing importance to state and local elected officials.
The principal investigators are Christine Marie Sierra, University of New Mexico; Carol Hardy-Fanta, University of Massachusetts-Boston; Dianne M. Pinderhughes, University of Notre Dame; and Pei-te Lien, University of California-Santa Barbara.
“The study is an in-depth look at minorities in public office – who they are, their distribution nationally and their policy positions on topics such as the Iraq War, No Child Left Behind, Immigrant-Friendly Policies and the Voting Rights Act,” Sierra said.
Some findings:
She said that the survey is, to date, the nation’s most comprehensive multiracial, multi-office national survey of Black, Latino, Asian and American Indian elected officials holding positions at state and local levels.
“Finding local officials – mayors, city councilors, county commissioners and school board members – was difficult,” she said.
The PIs built a database by verifying individuals in directories from three U.S. research centers: for Black leadership, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in D.C.; the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials; and the Asian-American Studies Center at UCLA. For data on American Indians in state legislatures, the researchers drew from scholarly sources and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The researchers and their graduate assistants verified and expanded on the directory listings to construct a national database of over 10,000 public officials in federal and selected state and local office. The sample for the national survey was drawn from this database. “This is important baseline research for future study,” Sierra said.
“Oftentimes these leaders only receive local attention,” she said. They interviewed 1,354 officials, with slightly more than half the respondents being Black/African American, over one-third Latino/a, seven percent Asian and two percent American Indian.
Seventy-two percent of those public officials who were successfully contacted agreed to participate in the survey, which was conducted by UNM’s Institute for Public Policy.
Full details of the findings will be available on the Gender and Multi-Cultural Leadership Project Web site, www.gmcl.org, on Nov. 7.
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