women, ambition & politics
Photo Credit: James Steidl
In her washingtonpost.com blog, On Balance, Leslie Morgan Steiner criticized the findings of a Brookings Institution study that concluded women are under-represented in politics because they are not as politically ambitious as men. Specifically, the Brookings report states:
“Extensive research shows that when women run for office, they perform just as well as men…The fundamental reason for women’s underrepresentation is that they do not run for office. There is a substantial gender gap in political ambition; men tend to have it, and women don’t.”
The report concludes the gender ambition gap in American politics is attributable to the following:
Women are less likely than men to:
- be willing to endure the rigors of a political campaign
- be recruited to run for office
- have the freedom to reconcile work and family obligations with political office
- to think they are qualified to run
- to perceive the political environment as fair
According to Ms. Steiner, some of the real reasons women do not run for office are,
“A lack of role models. Low self-confidence in the political arena. Abysmal financial support. Pitiful recruitment by entrenched political organizations. Reluctance to subject our families to public scrutiny.”
“So, [she continues] I argue that women are plenty ambitious — in politics, in our professional lives and at home. The “gap” is in people’s perceptions and definitions of female ambition. Ambition in a dress looks different. Get over it. The real obstacles to success won’t get addressed if we poo-poo women as lacking ambition and stop the discussion there.”
Interesting issue, after spending two days with several very ambitious women at Harvard, I would add that political office may not be the venue of choice for ambitious women who want to change the world. Non-for-profit management, entrepreneurship, commitment to education were many of the preferred environments for women to give back to their community and effect change.
