This dissertation examines the political representation of women on both the national and the state level in the U.S. I propose that our conventional conceptualization of women's interests is too narrow and does not grasp the full breadth of representational activity on behalf of women. Using original data sets consisting of floor speeches, bills, and campaign ads for the 111th, 112th, and 113th Congress (2009 -- 2014), as well as bills (2009 -- 2014) and surveys and interviews with state level legislators I conducted in three states in the years 2014 and 2015, I establish a clear typology of women's interests and show that demographic and contextual factors (specifically gender, par- tisanship, institutional context, receptiveness to women, and policy substance) predict the extent and content of legislators conceptualizations of women's representation and consequently the way they represent women's interests in the political process. This framework can be used as a template for the wider study of the representation of group interests in the U.S.