The title of this seminar comes from a book by Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox about why women don’t run for office. Although the methods and findings have varied, there is a general consensus in the literature that if more women ran, more women would be elected. So, why don’t more women run?
This seminar will focus on women in public office in the United States with a concentration on barriers to candidacy. We will draw on the current literature, statistics and personal stories. We will also touch on the broader importance of descriptive representation and how it leads to substantive representation.
