| In the past decade, some women lobbyists have progressed from representing compassion issues such as healthcare, children and education that were traditionally associated with women to representing concerns such as finance and engineering that are nontraditional for women and of vital importance to major corporations in the United States. Women have become contract lobbyists with major law firms, women have started their own firms. In addition, women have become the principal corporate lobbyists for major American companies.; The study was conducted with a mail survey sent to women lobbyists in the three classifications and to male lobbyists who served as a comparison group. The number of respondents in this sample was 462 with 107 females (41.5 percent), 151 males (58.6 percent) with a response rate of 56.0 percent and 12 states and the District of Colombia: Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, California, Washington, Texas, Virginia and Florida.; The significance of this study is that it is the first major examination of women as political actors in nontraditional lobbying roles. Because lobbyists are important links between organized interests and government, it was important to examine and explore the similarities and dissimilarities of career patterns and backgrounds, perceptions of women and the methods used to practice lobbying. |
