Gender,Credibility,and Politics: The Senate Nomination Hearings of Cabinet Secretaries-Designate,1975 to 1993

Abstract

This article demonstrates that men Senators use the confirmation hear ings of Cabinet Secretaries-designate to investigate nominees' understand ing of the political norms governing legislative - presidential - departmental relations. The status of the Secretary-designate as a Washington insider or outsider therefore affects the confirmation hearing, outsiders being pre sumed to lack the requisite socialization and consequently being viewed as less credible. In particular, women Secretaries-designate are more often treated as outsiders (their political experience notwithstanding) and thus encounter distinctive challenges in establishing their credibility before the confirmation (later, authorization) committees. The credentialling of Sec retaries-designate through the confirmation process gives men Senators extraordinary control over institutional developments within the national executive branch: Legislators can delegitimize a nominee's distinctive in sights, thereby structuring the political agenda at its most preliminary stage and ensuring that change will be strictly incremental.