Gender and the decision to run for office

Despite an electoral system that appears to present excellent opportunities for women to win elective office, the number of women candidates remains l ow. While the initial decision to run for office is critical in understandi ng women's continued under-representation in elective office, very little r esearch explores this subject. To examine the manner in which gender affect s the decision to seek an elective position, we investigated how men and wo men in the "pool of eligible candidates" in New York State perceived runnin g for office. Two central findings emerged from our data. First, contrary t o findings in previous research, women and men in our sample expressed roug hly equal levels of political ambition and viewed the campaign environment similarly. Our second central finding, however, is that important gender di fferences emerged in the factors that contributed to the decision to run. I n other words, women considered many more factors when thinking about runni ng for office, whereas men of all types felt more freedom to launch a candi dacy. These findings tend to reinforce the notion that broad patterns of se x-role socialization continue to impede women from full inclusion in the el ectoral process.