- Women Candidates and their Campaigns
- Women’s Election to Congress
- Reaching Executive Office
- Why Women? The Impact of Women in Elective Office
- Media Coverage of Women Candidates
- Women Candidates and Political Parties
- Women Voters
- Candidate Recruitment and Women’s Routes to Elective Office
- Women of Color in American Politics
Women Candidates and their Campaigns
Campaign resources and favorable political opportunities have traditionally shaped women’s election to office, and those factors remain essential today. Women are strategic about where, when, and how they run for office.1 While all candidates need campaign resources, having encouragement and sufficient support seem to be even more important to women than to men. Most current research about gender stereotypes is optimistic about voter support for women candidates.2 At the same time, women candidates continue to navigate “gendered terrain” when they campaign.3 The gendered terrain that women face can vary with political party and the type and level of elective office. Moreover, gender intersects with other factors, such as race/ethnicity.
Voter prejudice against women candidates does not appear to be a major factor in limiting women’s election to office