So what exactly are the disadvantages if Majority-Minority districts seem to benefit women of color? For starters, the damaging effect that majority-minority districts have is that they bleed out minorities from nearby districts. Going back to the 9th Congressional District, King County as diversely populated as it is, is only one district out of ten. Winning one district is not enough to secure a position pertaining to statewide, let alone gubernatorial. Due to the fact that minorities flock to the Democratic liberal-leaning counties, this leaves neighboring districts to become predominantly Republican. This was a phenomenon that came to the attention of Republicans in the 1990s, just in time for redistricting. Given that minority voters
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Along with this, contests for statewide office are also “more likely to create incentives for the party to merge around the nomination of a favored candidate than contests for safe Democratic districts in which the Democratic primary is the main contest” (page 9 http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/candidaciesofwomenofcolor.pdf ). Yes, WOC are successfully able to reach legislature without the benefit of party recruitment because of Democratic Majority-Minority districts, however, this is as far as representation goes because Democratic party fails to do more in terms of recruiting WOC to run in wider range of districts. A cause for this may stem from “challenges of building both party and donor support” when it comes to being a woman of color (Barbara Lee Family Foundation 2001; Baer 2003). Another disadvantage party representation brings is a WOC’s power being undermined due to the “double disadvantage” standard; being both a minority and woman, and more often than not are restricted to the domestic sphere of politics. This challenge has been studied by scholars Fox and Oxley where they found that “with respect to statewide offices… women are more likely to seek and hold “feminine” offices such as state education official than “masculine” offices such as attorney general”, the effect of this is that WOC are being seen to stick to issues that would then pertain to both gender and race as they hold the collective responsibility that majority women would not have (Fox and Oxley
Along with this, contests for statewide office are also “more likely to create incentives for the party to merge around the nomination of a favored candidate than contests for safe Democratic districts in which the Democratic primary is the main contest” (page 9 http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/resources/candidaciesofwomenofcolor.pdf ). Yes, WOC are successfully able to reach legislature without the benefit of party recruitment because of Democratic Majority-Minority districts, however, this is as far as representation goes because Democratic party fails to do more in terms of recruiting WOC to run in wider range of districts. A cause for this may stem from “challenges of building both party and donor support” when it comes to being a woman of color (Barbara Lee Family Foundation 2001; Baer 2003). Another disadvantage party representation brings is a WOC’s power being undermined due to the “double disadvantage” standard; being both a minority and woman, and more often than not are restricted to the domestic sphere of politics. This challenge has been studied by scholars Fox and Oxley where they found that “with respect to statewide offices… women are more likely to seek and hold “feminine” offices such as state education official than “masculine” offices such as attorney general”, the effect of this is that WOC are being seen to stick to issues that would then pertain to both gender and race as they hold the collective responsibility that majority women would not have (Fox and Oxley