Intimidating exemplars: the deterrent effect of excellent women in office

dc.contributor.advisor	Tessa Ditonto
dc.contributor.author	Salucka, Madeline
dc.contributor.department	Political Science
dc.date	2018-08-11T16:06:13.000
dc.date.accessioned	2020-06-30T03:01:03Z
dc.date.available	2020-06-30T03:01:03Z
dc.date.copyright	Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2016
dc.date.embargo	2001-01-01
dc.date.issued	2016-01-01
dc.description.abstract	<p>It is well known that there are far fewer women than men serving in U.S. politics and elective office, and a great deal of research has been done to uncover the reason why. One factor articulated by Lawless and Fox is the way women perceive their qualifications to run for office, something they attribute to traditional gender socialization. I posit a different explanation—Intimidating Exemplars Theory. Drawing on concepts from Festinger’s Social Comparison Theory, I hypothesize that when considering a run for office, potential female candidates compare themselves to the women already in office. Since current female public officials have to be more highly qualified to reach office than men do, potential female candidates may compare themselves to these current officeholders and determine that they do not have the qualifications necessary to run. Results from a survey of elected officials in Iowa and of Iowa State University students support this theory. Female elected officials do name higher achieving female politicians as exemplars and emphasize their background/experience more than they did for male exemplars. Implications of this theory for political science and women candidates are also discussed.</p>
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier	archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/15048/
dc.identifier.articleid	6055
dc.identifier.contextkey	8882581
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-180810-4840
dc.identifier.s3bucket	isulib-bepress-aws-west
dc.identifier.submissionpath	etd/15048
dc.identifier.uri	https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/29232
dc.language.iso	en
dc.source.bitstream	archive/lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/15048/Intimidating_Exemplars__The_Deterrent_Effect_of_Excellent_Women_in_Office.pdf\|\|\|Fri Jan 14 20:34:58 UTC 2022
dc.subject.disciplines	Political Science
dc.subject.keywords	Political Science
dc.title	Intimidating exemplars: the deterrent effect of excellent women in office
dc.type	article
dc.type.genre	thesis
dspace.entity.type	Publication
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	a4a018a7-4afa-4663-ba11-f2828cbd0a15
thesis.degree.discipline	Political Science
thesis.degree.level	thesis
thesis.degree.name	Master of Arts

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