Ambition Gap Research Articles

Power, Conflict, and Community: How Gendered Views of Political Power Influence Women's Political Ambition

We provide a novel approach to understanding the political ambition gap between men and women by examining perceptions of the role of politician. Across three studies, we find that political careers are viewed as fulfilling power‐related goals, such as self‐promotion and competition. We connect these goals to a tolerance for interpersonal conflict and both of these factors to political ambition. Women's lack of interest in conflict and power‐related activities mediates the relationship between gender and political ambition. In an experiment, we show that framing a political career as fulfilling communal goals—and not power‐related goals—reduces the ambition gap.

Justice and Climate Finance: Differentiating Responsibility in the Green Climate Fund

Institutional mechanisms for administering international climate finance constitute key components of an effect global climate regime, and the Green Climate Fund represents what promises to become the most important such mechanism. As the Fund begins to serve its function of transferring economic resources from developed to developing countries to support mitigation and adaptation activities, it faces several obstacles. Since contributions to the Fund by states or private parties are voluntary, they are not necessarily based on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s “common but differentiated responsibilities” principle. Its governing instrument also departs from UNFCCC principles. In addition, the Fund faces a significant ambition gap in pledges to fund its operations. By instantiating several informal means of applying climate justice norms to assessments of national contributions to climate finance, some of this resistance might be overcome, increasing support for the Fund and, with this, increasing prospects for reaching consensus on a new climate treaty architecture at COP 21.

Experimental Investigations of the Gendered Political Ambition Gap

Political institutions around the world continue to be dominated by men. News media and scholarly accounts often focus on how external factors, like political parties and elite networks, and internal factors, like women’s self-confidence and political interest, combine to depress women’s political ambition. Yet, we know little about whether these popular narratives matter for effecting women’s political ambition. We demonstrate that blaming women’s underrepresentation on internal or external causes results in clear changes in women’s political ambition. Attributing women’s lack of parity in political offices to external factors is akin to blaming discrimination and allows group members to “discount” the possibility that failure rests on their own abilities. Alternatively, attributing women’s underrepresentation on internalized factors triggers stereotype threat, which depresses women’s political ambition. Our findings contribute to an understanding of women’s underrepresentation in political office and the importance of frames in encouraging civic engagement.

Ambition Gap? The Preference Structure of the BRICS and Its Implication for Global Governance

Ambition Gap? The Preference Structure of the BRICS and Its Implication for Global Governance

"The “Ambition Gap” Explained: Workplace Mistreatment as a Function of Gender, Ambition, and Rank"

The continued gender gap in wages and rank are popularly attributed to an “ambition gap” between men and women (Sandberg, 2013). According to this explanation, men, but not women, desire and strive...

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

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.

Loss & Damage in the UN Climate Regime: A Way to Bridge the Ambition Gap?

This article explores the potential role of loss and damage liability in bridging the ambition gap in the current climate regime and in the negotiations on the post 2020 climate regime. The basic concept explored is the impact an allocation of liability for unmitigated climate change would have on the motivation of individual parties to mitigate and adapt, and to support efforts in other countries.

The Devil in the Deal: Trade Embedded Emissions and the Durban Platform

Several commentators have expressed concern that the Durban Platform does not include more specific language about the need for equitable mitigation efforts. Meanwhile, other commentators have argued that the differentiated approach adopted by the Kyoto Protocol set up an opposition between the developed and developing nations; resulting in an impasse which has prevented the achievement of adequately ambitious, agreeable and binding mitigation commitments. In this commentary I propose that the political impasse is not due to the equity track per se, but rather to the territorial and production-based accounting system upon which it was built. Under the UNFCCC, parties are required to provide inventories of GHG emissions within their national borders. There are several problems with this method, but most important given the argument here, is that the production-approach has resulted in a significant misrepresentation of the total climate impact of developed nations. Because GHG emissions are not confined by geopolitical borders, it is important to understand the climate impact of contemporary consumption and trade, regardless of where emissions are produced. I argue that supplementing production-based accounting with a consideration of the emissions embedded in trade has the potential to provide a more agreeable and politically viable path for closing the ambition gap and ensuring equity.