PSC 441 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Sacrificial Lamb, Role Model
● Gender and the decision to run for office
○ Confidence gap
■ Women underestimate qualifications
■ Pipeline theory:
● Women hold certain occupations, leading them to be more politically
involved
● Lower offices - local, community
■ Why? Women are less confident than men
● Internalize failure (I failed)
● Externalize success (they helped me succeed)
■ Women need…
● Encouragement
● Recruitment
○ Political parties
■ Historically:
● Volunteer role
Development lack
● Sacrificial lamb
● Perceptions of candidates
○ Women are less likely to be perceived as candidate-material
■ 3rd parties:
● Devotion to reform cause
○ Prohibition
○ Cleaning gov’t
● New voting bloc?
■ Party Reforms
● 1968 - democrat national convention pushed for more women in politics
● Recruitment efforts: to get women to run for office
○ Off the Sidelines PAC
○ Maggie’s List
○ She should Run
○ Political Parity
○ Family constraints
■ Balancing life and work
● Local offices
● Inflexible schedule of a politician
● Not as important today
■ Women have more obligations to family than men
■ It’s atypical for women in office to have young children, but typical for men
○ Symbolic representation
■ Role model effect:
● Previously excluded groups will find politics is more legitimate when
they see more people that look like them in office
● Research findings: mixed
