It Takes a Candidate
Why Women Don't Run for Office

This book serves as the first nationwide empirical account of how gender affects political ambition.

Jennifer L. Lawless (Author), Richard L. Fox (Author)

9780521674140, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 12 September 2005

220 pages, 33 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.309 kg

' … an excellent contribution to the study of gender and US politics and provides insight into the subtle socialization processes that underlie and reinforce the structural factors commonly analyzed in discussions of women's political representation in the USA.' International Feminist Journal of Politics

It Takes a Candidate serves as the first systematic, nationwide empirical account of the manner in which gender affects political ambition. Based on data from the Citizen Political Ambition Study, a national survey conducted on almost 3,800 'potential candidates', we find that women, even in the highest tiers of professional accomplishment, are substantially less likely than men to demonstrate ambition to seek elected office. Women are less likely than men to be recruited to run for office. They are less likely than men to think they are 'qualified' to run for office. And they are less likely than men to express a willingness to run for office in the future. This gender gap in political ambition persists across generations. Despite cultural evolution and society's changing attitudes toward women in politics, running for public office remains a much less attractive and feasible endeavor for women than men.

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': gender self-perceptions of candidate viability
7. Taking the plunge: deciding to run for office
8. Gender and the future of electoral politics.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH]