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

Extract

It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office, Jennifer L. Lawless, Richard L. Fox, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 203.

It Takes a Candidate explains why professional women aren't running for political office in sufficient numbers to narrow the persistent gender gap in political representation in the United States. By means of a comprehensive survey of men and women in the political “pipeline professions,” the authors discovered that women remain less politically ambitious than men. Even highly qualified women tend not to envision political careers or to believe they have the right stuff for politics. Remarkably, women who do decide to run for office often doubt their credentials. In contrast, men with similar qualifications have little difficulty imagining holding even the highest political positions, as they accept their life and work skills as unique training for elected public service.