Women in Politics Endorse a More Liberal Agenda : Poll: Female legislators of both parties show a stronger concern for social issues than their male counterparts, a survey finds.

Women legislators, Democratic or Republican, are generally far more supportive of a wide spectrum of measures extending women’s rights than their male counterparts, according to a national survey released Friday in Coronado.

Conducted by Rutgers University’s Center for the American Woman and Politics and released at the center’s quadrennial convention of women state legislators, the survey also suggested that women have distinctly different policy agendas than men.

Grouped by gender, women are consistently more liberal than men, a statistical indication that the so-called “gender gap” is alive and well, survey authors said.

“Women are reshaping the agenda, and it is happening without high numbers (of women in office),” center director Ruth Mandel said.

Women hold 18% of the seats in the nation’s state legislatures, and 6% of the positions in Congress. Three women serve as governors.

The survey was conducted in 1988, when women held 17% of the seats in state legislatures. Questions for the survey were asked of hundreds of legislators, men and women. Democrats outnumbered Republicans, 57% to 43%.

The survey found that, on a host of topics traditionally thought of as part of the liberal agenda, Republican women were more supportive than Democratic men.

According to the survey, 47% of Republican women said they had worked that year on “women’s rights” bills, which included measures covering domestic violence, day care, rape, pay equity and divorce benefits. A smaller number of male Democratic legislators--40%--made the same claim.

By comparison, 67% of Democratic women and only 33% of Republican men said they had worked on similar legislation.

Asked if they had made a women’s rights bill--or other related legislation involving health, welfare or education--their legislative priority, 54% of Democratic women and 47% of Republican women said they had.

In contrast, only 39% of Democratic men and 35% of Republican men made such issues a priority.

The survey did not conclude how many of the women’s rights bills were signed into law, but the poll’s authors said that, by raising issues not emphasized by men, women were having an impact on government.

“We did find strong and compelling evidence that women legislators do make a difference, that they have a distinctive impact,” said Susan Carroll, one of the authors.

Questions on a range of political issues reinforced perceptions that elected women are generally more liberal than male officeholders.

For example, 79% of women and 61% of men favored the now-dormant equal rights amendment. Similarly, 74% of women and 61% of men opposed prohibitions against all or most abortions.

Almost half--49%--of women said they opposed the death penalty, while only a third of the men opposed capital punishment. Fifty-three percent of the women legislators said they believed that the private sector alone cannot solve the nation’s economic problems, compared to only 41% of men.