Gender, Advice, and the Candidacy Gap in American Politics

Abstract

ABSTRACT American women remain vastly under-represented in positions of political power, and researchers have argued that this representational deficit is partially due to a political candidacy gap. In this article, we investigate the importance of gender identity at a formative moment in the development of political ambition. More specifically, we contacted thousands of local party leaders, donors, and activists to solicit advice for one of two student clubs: one women’s group and one gender-nonspecific group. Our experiment suggests that overt gender identity can lead to greater guidance opportunities – particularly from Republican women. Moreover, while the advice offered to the women’s club was far more likely to be gendered, the advice given to this group did not include a greater emphasis on the challenges associated with a political career. These findings suggest that organizational gender identity can meaningfully affect political mentorship experiences and, ultimately, the candidate pipeline. 1