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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

political interest, ambition of women, political office, masculine connotation

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Currently in the U.S., twenty women (20%) are members of the Senate and seventy-seven women (17.7%) are members of the House of Representatives,1 ranking the U.S. at 77th in the world for its percentage of women in the lower or single House.2 Despite being over half the population,3 the percentage of women holding executive offices is not representative of the country’s composition. Why are women less likely to engage in politics and be ambitious enough to run for political office? Our purpose is to understand the gender gap within the political field. Research attempts to explain this phenomenon through a number of factors, such as being held back by social and economic factors. We conduct two survey experiments which provide more understanding to the reasons why women do not run for office as much as men. We hypothesize that women are less likely to run for political office for two reasons: 1) women perceive that “politics” has a masculine connotation leading to perceptions of a male exclusive field, and 2) women feel less knowledgeable and therefore under-qualified to run for political office.4

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