Political Science Commons^™

The Journeys Of Women In Local Elected Office: From Community Engagement To Making Meaningful Contributions, Andrea Marr

Dissertations

Women remain underrepresented across every level of elected office in the United States. More than 30 years after the supposed “Year of the Woman,” women hold less than 30% of the elected positions in local, state, and federal office. In the past, researchers attributed the paucity of women in office to structural barriers, including sexism in the electorate, fundraising difficulties, and discrimination by party gate keepers. A growing body of research, however, attributes the dearth of female politicians to a lack of political ambition among women and to gender socialization that prevents women from seeing themselves as political leaders.

The …

Underrepresentation Of Women In American Politics, Lindsey Crane

Master's Theses

In this project I studied why women are underrepresented in state legislatures. I conducted a data set ranging from 2000 to 2018 for forty-three US states, analyzing the percentage of women who won and the number of women who ran in the elections. Using this data, I found evidence that personal life choices have the most effect on rather women want to run for political office and successfully pursue political careers. Having this specific quantitative dataset, the study provides a better understanding to why women are still widely underrepresented on the state level. I also find that my independent variables …

“Yes, My Career Would End”: How The Existence Of Illicit Digital Media May Inhibit Women From Participating In Politics, Esther Afrakoma Appiah Dwaah

Masters Theses

The challenges faced by women in their quest to be equal participants with men in politics is not hidden. This study set out to examine how women may be restrained from rising to the highest offices in politics amidst fear of their existing nude contents that exist digitally. The body and sexuality of women have countlessly been employed as a tool to keep them out of political participation. Relying on data gathered through interviews with twenty four respondents, the study confirmed that women who have their illicit digital media in existence are less likely to take lead roles in politics …

The Softer Sex? Women Legislating War, Shanil Verjee

CMC Senior Theses

There is a long-standing assumption in feminist international relations theory that women are more peace-oriented than men, and that, therefore, if more women were put in positions of power, there would be less war. This paper explores whether this assumption holds true in the United States federal legislature by examining the voting and congressional records of women in Congress over time, in both the Republican and Democratic parties, and comparing them to the records of male members of Congress to determine whether women exhibit a significantly different legislative approach to war.

Factors Influencing The Likelihood Of Women Winning Elections, Natalie Browning

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study analyzes variables that increase the likelihood of women winning an election for the United States Congress spanning from 1970 to 2020. This study analyzes the relationship between how liberal the United States is and the likelihood of women winning elections. A dependent relationship was found between the level of liberalism rising in the US and women winning elections. Some of this study is also used to analyze a possible relationship between women being more likely to win open seats or those with incumbents seeking reelection. A possible relationship was found between those two variables, but it was decided …

The Emerge Difference: Effects Of Encouragement By Political Organizations On Women's Political Ambition, Ashleigh Hayes

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Substantive representation of women in elected positions is an area where The United States is lacking. Within the United States Congress, women are disproportionately less likely to be elected to office and it is much of the same at the state level. Nationally, women hold only 104 (19.4%) of the 535 seats in the United States Congress as of 2015 (8). At the state level, women fare somewhat better. Women comprise 24.2 percent of state legislatures nationwide (9). In the state of Kentucky, women hold 25 seats in the state legislature or 18.1 percent. This is far from equal or …

Comparing The Campaign Financing Patterns Of Male And Female Congressional Candidates, Sara M. Thane

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Nearly 100 years after gaining the right to vote, women are nowhere near reaching equal representation in the United States Congress. Although this is likely due to a range of factors, the possibility that women remain underrepresented because of a campaign financing disadvantage is explored in this research. While there is a rich body of literature comparing how male and female Congressional candidates finance their campaigns, previous research has not compared the net worth of male and female members of Congress or how net worth affects the amount of campaign receipts a candidate receives. Additionally, the self-financing patterns of male …

Should She Run? The Decision For Female Congressíenal Candidates, Laura . J. Maloney

Honors Theses

This study, “Should She Run? The decision for female congressional candidates,” explores Why Women decide to or not to run for Congress. lt focuses on the influence of state political Culture with a case study on the emergence of female candidates in the primaries for U.S. House of Representative races New England districts from 2002-2010. After running a series of general linear models, the study Ends that certain aspects of a state’s political culture do impact female candidate emergence in New England. Looking forward, it suggests that the key to shrinking the gender gap in the U.S. Congress is to …

A Political Profile Of Utah Women, Ann Wassermann

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper is a product of the desire to take advantage of the enormous amount of valuable data available in the files of the Bureau of Government and Opinion Research at Utah State University. The manpower and financial demands of doing the actual polling and getting the totals quickly to the public or private client make a detailed analysis of the conglomerate of studies a near impossibility.

It was my purpose to undertake a segment of just this type of research and integration of data. The increasing frequency with which women as a minority and voting group have been referred …