Reference no: EM131944086

While there are no official rules that are different between male and female political candidates, they are viewed differently and females have more barriers to face.

There is still strong evidence of sexism in American culture especially when it comes to females in leadership positions. Because there are fewer females in this arena, the stakes are higher and they are scrutinized in a different way than males are. A 2008 Pew study reported that a vast majority, 69%, say that men and women make equally good leaders.

(Pew, 2008) However, there is a paradox in the study and respondents also said that women's family responsibilities and lack of experience holds them back from upper ranks of politics and business. To me, this sounds like if a woman is already in a leadership role, people think they do a good job, it's the getting to that level that is the challenge. One of the biggest barriers to women is often themselves.

A Politico article pointed out that women do tend to win elections at the same rate as men, but they are far less likely to even run at all. (Ripley, 2017) The political ambition of women is far lower than men creating a gender gap in female representation in politics.

However, this article was written just eight months after the 2016 elections and there has been a surge in female consideration of running for office and this might be the catalyst that shrinks this gap. Hopefully the under representation of women in the government will take a change for the better and the gender gap will close.

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