Political Ambition Gap
Critical Analysis
According to the data in the swag graph above, what was the gap between the percentage of male and female candidates in 2001?
According to the data in the graph above, what was the gap between the percentage of male and female candidates in 2021?
How has the gap between male and female candidates changed in the past 20 years?
Why is there a gap between men and women in political ambition?
What is one consequence of that gap?
Imagine there was no gap and 50% of the candidates were male and 50% of the candidates were female. Explain what percent of the winners of these very hypothetical elections would be female?
According to the charts below, how does political ambition vary for Republicans versus Democrats?*
Imagine that the U.S. Congress had a 50/50 female to male ratio. How would that change U.S. policy?
Since 2001, the number of women serving in Congress has doubled (to 28%). Women’s organizations have made it a priority to recruit women to run for office. And famous female politicians, glass-shattering candidacies, more attention to women’s under-representation, women’s marches, and #MeToo are features of the contemporary political environment. These changes and efforts have helped propel a record number of women into elective office, but they haven’t been sufficient to change broader attitudes about whether women belong in the political arena. They haven’t been sufficient to close the gender gap in political ambition. Explain whether you believe we will ever close the gender gap in political ambition in the U.S.?
According to Forbes, more Republican women have said they will run for the House at this stage than any recent election cycle, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). So far, 127 GOP women have announced plans to run for a House seat, more than twice the 50 women who had declared their candidacy by this point in the 2020 cycle. The 127 women is the most at this stage for the GOP since 2010, when Republicans won a net gain of 63 seats and took back the House. Do you predict that 2022 will be a banner year for women in politics?
Learning Extension
Check out these amazing Politico charts and report on gender and political ambition. And then, if you haven’t had enough, read the Brookings report on gender and political ambition.
Action Extension*
Encourage and then support a woman in her run for political office.
