Female Political Candidacy

Female Political Candidacy

Abstract

Factors which influence female political candidacy were investigated. The results indicated significant gender differences on the following hypotheses: H1: Female and male political leaders will differ in their uses of interpersonal power; H2: Female and male political leaders will identify different motivations in seeking public office; and, H3: Female and male political leaders will differ in their perception of barriers to participation as political candidates. The secondary perspective of race was also considered but was not found to be a significant barrier to female candidacy. This significantly predictive model has regional and international implications, and future studies will tested it comparatively by state and region to affirm its generalizability.

Female Political Candidacy: A Racial and Gender Perspective

This study examines the use of interpersonal power by females in elected political positions, the factors that influence women to run for elected office, and the barriers that hinder female candidacy. Drawing from three areas of gender difference - women and development (IWPR, 2000), institutionalization of power relationships (Parsons, 1969), and socialization of gender roles (Bennett and Bennett, 1999; Lindsey, 1997) - the research focuses on women in elected political leadership positions using a comparison of women and men matched by elected positions in the State of Mississippi, USA. The hypotheses were: H1: Female and male political leaders will differ in their uses of interpersonal power; H2: Female and male political leaders will identify different motivations in seeking public office; and, H3: Female and male political leaders will differ in their perception of barriers to participation as political candidates. The secondary perspective of race is evaluated using statistical methods on a non-matched comparison of African Americans and Caucasians who responded to the gender study.

Economic arguments and incentives for policy supporting broad-based political representation are numerous. There is widespread acceptance that peoples who have little political voice are overlooked in the distribution of public goods and have less access to education and health. Kenworthy and Malami (1999) note that representative critical mass necessary for females as a social group to exert a substantial influence on politics is considered to be 30% of a legislative body, while Harvard sociologist Rosabeth Moss Kantor puts representation at closer to 50% to make a difference in the culture of an institution (Ivins, 2001).

The United States Agency for International Development notes that while almost all peoples around the world, specifically women, have a legal right to vote, actual female participation is inhibited by cultural, social, economic, legal and educational constraints (USAID Fact Sheet, 1997).