A duration analysis of congressional widows’ careers

• Congressional widows’ retirement is based by age, majority party size, and region they represent.
• Southern widows have much shorter tenure in Congress.
• When majorities are slim in the House, widows are less likely to retire.

The extensive congressional politics literature on House member retirement has yet to consider an important and unique subgroup of members – congressional widows. Using a semi-parametric Cox Model, this paper examines the duration of widows’ careers in the United States House of Representatives. Of particular concern are the relationships between years in office and age, education, region, prior political experience, committee positions, career ceilings, majority/minority status, and majority party size. We find that age, region, and majority party size are most relevant to understanding lengths of widows’ careers. In doing so, we contribute to the literature on political widows, gender in politics, as well as more general scholarship centered on congressional careers.