Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Electoral Politics: Still a Man's World?
- 2 Explaining Women's Emergence in the Political Arena
- 3 The Gender Gap in Political Ambition
- 4 Barefoot, Pregnant, and Holding a Law Degree: Family Dynamics and Running for Office
- 5 Gender, Party, and Political Recruitment
- 6 “I'm Just Not Qualified”: Gendered Self-Perceptions of Candidate Viability
- 7 Taking the Plunge: Deciding to Run for Office
- 8 Gender and the Future of Electoral Politics
- Appendix A The Citizen Political Ambition Study Sample Design and Data Collection
- Appendix B The Survey
- Appendix C The Interview Questionnaire
- Appendix D Variable Coding
- Works Cited
- Index
8 - Gender and the Future of Electoral Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Electoral Politics: Still a Man's World?
- 2 Explaining Women's Emergence in the Political Arena
- 3 The Gender Gap in Political Ambition
- 4 Barefoot, Pregnant, and Holding a Law Degree: Family Dynamics and Running for Office
- 5 Gender, Party, and Political Recruitment
- 6 “I'm Just Not Qualified”: Gendered Self-Perceptions of Candidate Viability
- 7 Taking the Plunge: Deciding to Run for Office
- 8 Gender and the Future of Electoral Politics
- Appendix A The Citizen Political Ambition Study Sample Design and Data Collection
- Appendix B The Survey
- Appendix C The Interview Questionnaire
- Appendix D Variable Coding
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
The most important and interesting question about women's political behavior is why so few seek and wield power. Women are numerous enough at the lowest level of politics – in the precincts, at the party picnics, getting out the vote, doing the telephoning, collecting the dollars – but remarkably scarce at the upper levels where decisions are made that affect the life of the community, state, nation … Whether women have the capacity to participate fully in the power processes of society [and] why they have so rarely sought to do so … are empirical questions which can be answered only by systematic inquiry.
–Jeanne Kirkpatrick (1974, 23)Women are active in politics in sizeable numbers – as party activists, as convention delegates, as staff members for other politicians, as community activists, as leaders in civic and community groups, as members of appointed boards and commissions. Yet few of these women seek elective office. Existing research has provided some clues as to why women might not run for office, but with very few exceptions, research has focused on women who became candidates for office or who were elected to office, not those who were dissuaded from running or who never considered running despite having qualifications and experience to do so. To develop a better understanding of why few women run for office, we need to examine what happens before primaries, i.e., the preprimary candidate selection process.
–Susan Carroll (1993, 214–15)[U]nderstanding the factors that lead women to run for office and why women are discouraged from running is a neglected area of research.[…]
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- Chapter
- Information
- It Takes a CandidateWhy Women Don't Run for Office, pp. 145 - 156Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005