Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women's Political Ambition

Abstract

We provide a novel approach to understanding the political ambition gap between men and women by examining perceptions of the role of politician. Across three studies, we find that political careers are viewed as fulfilling power‐related goals, such as self‐promotion and competition. We connect these goals to a tolerance for interpersonal conflict and both of these factors to political ambition. Women's lack of interest in conflict and power‐related activities mediates the relationship between gender and political ambition. In an experiment, we show that framing a political career as fulfilling communal goals—and not power‐related goals—reduces the ambition gap.

Why women don’t run: Experimental evidence on gender differences in political competition aversion

“…Their findings suggest that something about the competitive nature of elections is to blame for women's greater election aversion. Similarly, in a series of survey experiments, Schneider et al (2015) find that conflict avoidance and distaste for the agentic aspects of politics play a role in women's lower levels of political ambition. Flory et al (2014) find similar results in a natural field experiment on job-entry decisions.…”

Gender, risk assessment, and political ambition

“…64 According to the logic presented here, a component of the gender gap in candidate emergence may be attributed to the differential ways that men and women evaluate the risks associated with running for political office, and these differential ways in turn reflect evolved differences in psychology between men and women. In HG society, women and men pursued distinctively different strategies to achieve success.…”

“…The two-party system in the United States tends to provoke polarization and negativity, whereas parliamentary systems (such as those found in much of Europe) feature multi-party systems that not only encourage coalition and consensus but also require cooperation to function. Given that men are more likely to have a higher social dominance orientation 63 and women are more likely to be exhibit political ambition when primed with communal frames, 64 potential female candidates are likely to find the combative political culture less welcoming than potential male candidates do.…”

“…64 When careers are framed in a more egalitarian or communal way, women become more ambitious. 64 This finding is consistent with the Darwinian feminist perspective that women would theoretically be more likely to pursue and hold political leadership in an egalitarian society.…”

“…64 When careers are framed in a more egalitarian or communal way, women become more ambitious. 64 This finding is consistent with the Darwinian feminist perspective that women would theoretically be more likely to pursue and hold political leadership in an egalitarian society. 65 The gap in understanding the ambition gap Clearly, myriad demand-side influences help explain women's underrepresentation in politics, and Lawless and Fox 3,4 and others have carefully outlined the critical factors that depress the supply side of female candidates.…”