Making it Personal: Assessing the Impact of In-Class Exercises on Closing the Gender Gap in Political Ambition

Abstract

There is evidence that some obstacles to women running for political office emerge early in the political development of women and girls. Lawless and Fox (2005) identify several reasons for lower political ambition among women relative to men. Among their explanations are that girls are less likely to be engaged in political conversations in their childhood homes than are boys, and women receive less encouragement to run for office by family members and friends. While it is unclear what interventions may help close the ambition gap, research suggests some avenues for change. We consider how to use the classroom as a place to encourage female college students to reflect on their own potential as candidates. We detail and test two ways in which instructors can offer students opportunities to learn about the ambition gap and to consider their own possible political future. On balance, our findings demonstrate that classroom exercises that expose students to women in political office, coupled with literature and discussion that contextualizes those individuals’ experiences, encourage greater self-reported political ambition, particularly among female students. Moreover, we find this positive outcome in both small seminars and large lecture courses.

Keywords:

• classroom exercise
• gender
• political ambition
• political leadership

Notes

Notes

We say “at minimum” as many of these woman-versus-woman elections involve a male candidate either at the primary or general election stage.

The Barbara Lee Foundation is a Boston-area-based organization that is dedicated to advancing women's equality and representation in both politics and the arts.

Due to inevitable variation in course formats and logistics, the exercises and reflections were not administered identically across classes. Where differences are significant, we discuss them in the article. Students in women and politics classes at Brandeis University, Florida Atlantic University, and Pitzer College participated in the activities, with class enrollment ranging from 7 to 62 students per class.

For the seminar classes, students read Lawless and Fox (2005). For the lecture course, the professor assigned a shorter assignment Fox and Lawless (2010).

While this is not a true experiment, we borrow the language of experimental design to discuss our design and results.

There are no differences between students in the large lecture class that sought a women's studies minor and those who did not.