It Still Takes A Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (Revised edition)

Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
List of Tables......Page 11
List of Figures......Page 13
Acknowledgments......Page 15
1 Electoral Politics: Still a Man’s World?......Page 19
Representation, Equality, and the Study of Gender in Electoral Politics......Page 23
Traditional Gender Socialization in the Context of U.S. Politics: The Central Argument and Its Implications......Page 26
Traditional Family Role Orientations......Page 27
Masculinized Ethos......Page 28
Gendered Psyche......Page 30
Organization of the Book......Page 32
2 Explaining Women’s Emergence in the Political Arena......Page 36
Women and Elective Office: The Numbers......Page 38
Existing Explanations for Women’s Underrepresentation......Page 40
Societal Rejection and Cultural Evolution: The Discrimination Explanation......Page 42
Institutional Inertia: The Incumbency Explanation......Page 46
The Candidate Eligibility Pool: The Pipeline Explanation......Page 48
The Missing Piece: Developing a Theory of Gender and Political Ambition......Page 51
The Citizen Political Ambition Panel Study......Page 54
3 The Gender Gap in Political Ambition......Page 62
Very Much the Same: Gender, Political Participation, Proximity, and Interest......Page 64
Very Much Different: Gender and Political Ambition......Page 67
Stage 1: Considering a Candidacy......Page 68
Stage 2: Deciding to Enter the First Race......Page 73
The Persistent Winnowing Effect......Page 74
The Gender Gap in Elective Office Preferences......Page 75
Conclusion......Page 77
4 Barefoot, Pregnant, and Holding a Law Degree: Family Dynamics and Running for Office......Page 79
Raised to Be a Candidate?......Page 82
Eligible Candidates’ Family Structures and Roles......Page 87
Wife, Mother, and Candidate? Family Roles as Impediments to Political Ambition......Page 94
Are Times Changing? Generational Differences in Political Ambition......Page 102
Conclusion......Page 105
5 Gender, Party, and Political Recruitment......Page 107
Eligible Candidates’ Political Attitudes and Partisanship......Page 109
Who Gets Asked to Run for Office?......Page 113
The Gender Gap in Political Recruitment......Page 115
The Role of Womens Organizations......Page 121
Political Recruitment and Considering a Candidacy......Page 124
Conclusion......Page 128
6 “I’m Just Not Qualified”: Gendered Self-Perceptions of Candidate Viability......Page 130
The Gender Gap in Self-Perceived Qualifications and Its Impact on Political Ambition......Page 132
The Sexist Environment......Page 140
Gender Differences in Defining Political Qualifications......Page 144
Different Yardsticks for Gauging Political Qualifications......Page 149
Conclusion......Page 152
7 Taking the Plunge: Deciding to Run for Office......Page 154
Why Would Anyone Run for Office? Negative Perceptions of the Electoral Environment and the Campaign Process......Page 156
Gender and the Decision to Enter a Race......Page 163
A Side Note on Political Culture and Structural Factors......Page 172
Prospective Interest in Running for Office......Page 175
Conclusion......Page 179
8 Gender and the Future of Electoral Politics......Page 181
Summarizing the Findings and Forecasting Women's Representation......Page 182
Recasting the Study of Gender and Elections......Page 189
Appendix A: The Citizen Political Ambition Panel Study Sample Design and Data Collection......Page 195
INSTRUCTIONS......Page 198
INSTRUCTIONS......Page 209
Part I – Running for Public Office......Page 220
Part III – Professional and Life Goals: Now Id like to spend a couple of minutes talking about your career goals......Page 223
Part IV – Perceptions of a Gendered Environment: Finally, I would like to ask you about some of the gender dynamics you may have witnessed in your professional life......Page 224
Appendix E: Variable Coding......Page 225
Works Cited......Page 231
Index......Page 249