Women on the Run: Gender and Political Office

Jennifer Lawless

Jennifer Lawless

Why do so few women seek public office?

Jennifer Lawless, a nationally recognized expert on electoral candidates, will discuss issues facing women running for public office. The talk, “Women on the Run,” will be held Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the Stern Center Great Room. The discussion will be available online via live stream.

Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid has brought to light the challenges of the political landscape for female candidates. As a woman who ran for Congress in the past, Lawless argues not enough women are seeking public office, resulting in underrepresentation of women at all levels of government. A survey from the Pew Research Center in 2014 found that while just 2 percent of Americans ever seek public office, women only represent a quarter of that small slice of the population.

Lawless is professor of government at American University, where she serves as the director of the Women & Politics Institute. She is also the author of Becoming a Candidate: Political Ambition and the Decision to Run for Office and co-author of Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Campaigns in a Polarized Era and It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don’t Run for Office. Her political commentary has been quoted in numerous media outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, among others. In 2006, she sought, but did not win, the Democratic nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives in Rhode Island’s second congressional district.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Women’s & Gender Resource Center and co-sponsored by the Churchill Fund. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and part of a set of events on the 2016 presidential election. 

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Published September 22, 2016