Description
It Still Takes A Candidate serves as the only systematic, nationwide empirical account of the manner in which gender affects political ambition. Based on data from the Citizen Political Ambition Panel Study, a national survey conducted of almost 3,800 'potential candidates' in 2001 and a second survey of more than 2,000 of these same individuals in 2008, Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox find that women, even in the highest tiers of professional accomplishment, are substantially less likely than men to demonstrate ambition to seek elective 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 and over time.
Table of Contents
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 Panel Study sample design and data collection; Appendix B. The first wave survey (2001); Appendix C. The second wave survey (2008); Appendix D. The interview questionnaire; Appendix E. Variable coding.
