They’re Finally Ready For Us!
What if you asked 2,250 adults across the U.S. who makes a better political leader, a man or a woman? And what if you divided leadership into 8 character traits?
Luckily for us, the Pew Research Center found the money and the people to fund a well-run survey asking these exact questions. What did they find? They found a paradox in our society.
They identified these 8 political leadership traits:
What if you asked 2,250 adults across the U.S. who makes a better political leader, a man or a woman? And what if you divided leadership into 8 character traits?
Luckily for us, the Pew Research Center found the money and the people to fund a well-run survey asking these exact questions. What did they find? They found a paradox in our society.
They identified these 8 political leadership traits:
- Honest
- Intelligent
- Hardworking
- Decisive
- Ambitious
- Compassionate
- Outgoing
- Creative
And they got these results:
- Honest Women 50% vs 20%
- Intelligent Women 38% vs 14%
- Hardworking Men and Women
- Decisive Men 44% vs 33%
- Ambitious Men and Women
- Compassionate Women 80% vs 5%
- Outgoing Women 47% vs 28%
- Creative Women 62% vs 11%
The survey showed that people rated women as better leaders in 5 out of 8 categories, men in one category (decisive), and men and women equally in 2 categories (hardworking and ambitious).
This certainly is not the result the Pew Research Center would have found in the 1980’s. Times have changed.
Here’s the paradox:
Women have made great strides in educational attainment (6 out of 10 college degrees go to women) and women have achieved near equal participation in the U.S. workforce (46.5%), very few have made the jump to the highest levels of political leadership (17% in the Senate and a mysteriously equal 17% in the House) or corporate leadership (less than 3% of the Fortune 500 companies in 2008 had female CEO’s).
Is this the truth?
Are people fibbing when they take this survey, and they really don’t think women are good leaders, but it wouldn’t be politically correct to say this? Luckily again for us, the Pew Research Center wondered the same thing, so they conducted a second survey. They were given profiles of 2 candidates, Ann Clark and Andrew Clark who had similar characteristics, except for gender. How did each rank on their “likeliness to vote scale?” They came out the same! Gender no longer mattered. In fact, when it comes to assessments about character, the public’s gender stereotypes are actually pro-female.
Getting back to sports—
Women come out of this survey like a sports team that racks up better statistics but still loses the game. The 8-traits survey stats are women over men by 5 to 1, with 2 ties. Nearly all these gender evaluations are shared by men as well as women. Interesting.
Gender no longer matters (yea), so why do we have this shortfall (boo)?
A number of recent studies have shown that women do about as well as men once they actually run for office, but that many fewer women choose to run in the first place. Some people think this is because party leaders are reluctant to seek out women candidates, especially for highly competitive races. (This may be rapidly changing!)
A recent Brookings Institution study gives another explanation. It suggests that women may be constrained by their own shortfall in political ambition—which, the study theorizes, is the sum of several factors:
This certainly is not the result the Pew Research Center would have found in the 1980’s. Times have changed.
Here’s the paradox:
Women have made great strides in educational attainment (6 out of 10 college degrees go to women) and women have achieved near equal participation in the U.S. workforce (46.5%), very few have made the jump to the highest levels of political leadership (17% in the Senate and a mysteriously equal 17% in the House) or corporate leadership (less than 3% of the Fortune 500 companies in 2008 had female CEO’s).
Is this the truth?
Are people fibbing when they take this survey, and they really don’t think women are good leaders, but it wouldn’t be politically correct to say this? Luckily again for us, the Pew Research Center wondered the same thing, so they conducted a second survey. They were given profiles of 2 candidates, Ann Clark and Andrew Clark who had similar characteristics, except for gender. How did each rank on their “likeliness to vote scale?” They came out the same! Gender no longer mattered. In fact, when it comes to assessments about character, the public’s gender stereotypes are actually pro-female.
Getting back to sports—
Women come out of this survey like a sports team that racks up better statistics but still loses the game. The 8-traits survey stats are women over men by 5 to 1, with 2 ties. Nearly all these gender evaluations are shared by men as well as women. Interesting.
Gender no longer matters (yea), so why do we have this shortfall (boo)?
A number of recent studies have shown that women do about as well as men once they actually run for office, but that many fewer women choose to run in the first place. Some people think this is because party leaders are reluctant to seek out women candidates, especially for highly competitive races. (This may be rapidly changing!)
A recent Brookings Institution study gives another explanation. It suggests that women may be constrained by their own shortfall in political ambition—which, the study theorizes, is the sum of several factors:
- They have more negative attitudes than men about campaigning for office,
- They under-value their own qualifications for office; and
- They are more likely than men to be held back by family responsibilities.
My Tip of the Week involves some missionary work you can do, all for the benefit of women.
Tip:
Think hard about the 3 reasons women may not be stepping up for a political office. Could one of these be holding you back? Should it be holding you back? For instance, # 3, family responsibilities, look at the U.S. Senate and House right now. Quite a few of these women have raised families. You could start thinking about local positions you could hold now and ramp up later.
Perhaps there’s a woman you know who you’d like to see making responsible decisions in our government. Talk to other women and form a posse to convince her to run for office. I personally know of one woman, who had only held PTA positions, who said this happened to her. She said she was stunned, but the momentum kept building, and her confidence built right along with it. Today she’s a respected politician making careful decisions which help mold our society.
Think it over. Take a step. Or help another woman realize her potential. There’s something you can do!
Tip:
Think hard about the 3 reasons women may not be stepping up for a political office. Could one of these be holding you back? Should it be holding you back? For instance, # 3, family responsibilities, look at the U.S. Senate and House right now. Quite a few of these women have raised families. You could start thinking about local positions you could hold now and ramp up later.
Perhaps there’s a woman you know who you’d like to see making responsible decisions in our government. Talk to other women and form a posse to convince her to run for office. I personally know of one woman, who had only held PTA positions, who said this happened to her. She said she was stunned, but the momentum kept building, and her confidence built right along with it. Today she’s a respected politician making careful decisions which help mold our society.
Think it over. Take a step. Or help another woman realize her potential. There’s something you can do!
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