Gender Gap In Political Ambition

The Gender Gap in Political Ambition

In study after study we can find that when women run for office, they perform just as well as their male counterpart. There are no differences in women and men’s vote totals, or electoral success - yet women remain under-represented in U.S. political institutions. We argue that the fundamental reason for women’s under-representation is that they do not run for office. There is a considerable gender gap in political ambition. While men tend to have it, women don’t. Male candidates continue to over-represent leader positions in American politics because women do not get enough support to run for office.

Women continue to be under-represented in U.S. politics. Election year 1992 was dubbed the ”year of the

It is a fact that candidates from 1984 to 2010 have significant gender differences in their candidacies. Female candidates in both parties are more qualified than men, and democratic women spend more money and run in more politically favorable districts than their male counterparts do. These factors give democratic women a significant advantage, so much that when these factors are included in models predicting victory rates, democratic women are actually less likely to win than democratic men in both incumbent-contested and open seat races. Republican women are the opposite. Although they are more likely to have held elected office than republican men, they do not have a fundraising advantage relative to their male counterparts, and they tend to run in politically unfriendly districts. For republican women, these disadvantages add up to fewer votes and fewer victories than for republican men. After controlling for some of their disadvantages, republican women are still less likely to win than republican men (Shogan, Colleen

we can find several important points: At first glance, it might seem like a small difference in the numbers, but in reality, it reflects the fact that men are 71% more likely than women to run for office. That is a huge gap. The gender gap in political ambition is driven by women’s lower levels of political recruitment and lower self-assessments of political qualifications. Also, the fact that women remain the primary caretakers of the household and children adds a high degree of complexity to the decision to run for office; a complexity that most men do not face because the traditional gender roles are still present in American families. Given the persistent gender gap in political ambition, we are a long way from a political reality in which women and men are equally likely to aspire attaining high-level elective office. The statistics shows clearly that men have been - and still are - dominant in politics. And, unfortunately, this has not changed as much as desired throughout the years. We need to see more and more women in all positions in politics. Women who enter politics should also be encouraged and be convinced that they can perform just as well as men. Traditional gender roles, however; make it difficult for women who might consider running for office. We need more strong, female role models that young, ambitious women can look up