Men Idle,Women Network: How Networks Help Female Legislators Succeed

Why do some lawmakers form denser professional networks than others? We extend existing theories of gendered networks, arguing that legislators use networking as a strategy to compensate for a challenging institutional environment. Using original data from Brazil, we provide survey‐based evidence that female representatives in the Chamber of Deputies engage in higher rates of intragender networking and have more profuse and diverse legislative networks than male deputies. We also provide suggestive evidence that these profuse legislative relationships pay off for women in the form of higher vote shares at election time.