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Rebecca Kreitzer

Assistant Professor of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapter Member: North Carolina SSN
Areas of Expertise:
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Public Health

Connect with Rebecca

(919) 962-0682

About Rebecca

Kreitzer focuses on questions of women’s political representation, gender and sexuality politics, how society socially constructs group identities, and the diffusion of policy across U.S. states. Kreitzer investigates both the behavior of political actors and formal institutions to explain public policy in the fifty states. She is particularly interested in how policy affects groups of people in different ways (for instance, white women, women of color, men of color, LGBTQ identified people); as well as how Democratic and Republican women differentially represent their constituents in the name of representing women.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

How Family Experiences During Adolescence Influence Americans' Attitudes about Abortion

  • Julianna Pacheco
Key Findings Brief,

In the News

Rebecca Kreitzer quoted in Elaine Godfrey, "What it Means to Defund Planned Parenthood" The Atlantic, March 27, 2017.
"'Contraception Deserts' are What You Get When You Cut off This Little-Known Federal Program," Rebecca Kreitzer, Washington Post, September 26, 2016.
"Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Marriage Across the U.S.: USAPP Experts React," Rebecca Kreitzer, London School of Economics U.S. Centre's Blog on Politics and Policy, June 26, 2015.
"The States are Now the Battleground in the Fight over Abortion Rights," Rebecca Kreitzer, London School of Economics U.S. Centre's Blog on Politics and Policy, February 4, 2015.
"The Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage in a State is a Signal that Causes Certain Groups to Change Their Opinion to Support the Policy," Rebecca Kreitzer, London School of Economics U.S. Centre's Blog on Politics and Policy, July 29, 2014.

Publications

"Reproductive and Replicable: An Empirical Assessment of the Social Construction of Politically Relevant Target Groups" Political Science and Politics (forthcoming).

Assesses the underlying assumptions of Schneider and Ingram's theory of social construction of target populations. 

"Does Policy Adoption Change Norms and Opinions on Minority Rights?: The Effects of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage" (with Allison Hamilton and Croline Tolbert). Political Research Quarterly 67, no. 4 (2014): 795-808.

Evaluates the impact of the adoption of Varnum v. Brien on changing opinions on minority rights. 

"Adolescent Determinants of Abortion Attitudes: Evidence from the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth" (with Julianna Pacheco). Public Opinion Quarterly 80, no. 1 (2015): 66-89.

Shows that religious adherence and maternal gender role values are significant predictors of adult abortion opinions, even after controlling for contemporaneous religious adherence and the respondents’ own views on gender roles

"Modeling Heterogeneity in Pooled Event History Analysis (PEHA)" Public Opinion Quarterly 16 (2016): 121-141.

Demonstrates the best empirical approach to using the Pooled Event History Analysis method, a common way to study the spread of multiple policies across the states in the United States.

"Politics and Morality in State Abortion Policy" State Politics & Policy Quarterly 15, no. 1 (2015): 41-66.

Estimates the most significant predictors of approximately 40 different pro- and anti-abortion rights policy. 

"Women State Legislators: Women's Issues in Partisan Environments" (with Tracy L. Osborn), in Women and Elective Office, edited by Sue Thomas and Clyde Wilcox (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Discusses how political parties shape the ways that Republican and Democratic women legislate on women's issues by structuring their preferences. Also examines how partisan control of the legislative process shapes which women's issues make it into the legislative agenda.