ABOUT THIS BOOK

After the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, a large cohort of women emerged to run for office. Their efforts changed the landscape of candidates and representation. However, women are still far less likely than men to seek elective office, and face biases and obstacles in campaigns. (Women running for Congress make twice as many phone calls as men to raise the same contributions.)

The editors and contributors to Good Reasons to Run, a mix of scholars and practitioners, examine the reasons why women run—and do not run—for political office. They focus on the opportunities, policies, and structures that promote women’s candidacies. How do nonprofits help recruit and finance women as candidates? And what role does money play in women’s campaigns?

The essays in Good Reasons to Run ask not just who wants to run, but how to activate and encourage such ambition among a larger population of potential female candidates while also increasing the diversity of women running for office.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Shauna L. Shames is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Camden. She is the author of Out of the Running: Why Millennials Reject Political Careers and Why It Matters; co-author of Survive and Resist: The Definitive Guide to Dystopian Politics; and co-editor of The Right Women: Republican Party Activists, Candidates, and Legislators. Rachel I. Bernhard is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. Mirya R. Holman is an Associate Professor of Political Science, Tulane University and the author of Women in Politics in the American City (Temple). Dawn Langan Teele is the Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the editor of Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experiments in the Social Sciences and author of Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women’s Vote.

REVIEWS

“How might more women in the United States run for and win political office? In this highly accessible and well-integrated edited volume, leading scholars in the field of women in politics provide answers. Drawing on original data, they explain how women can overcome obstacles to their candidacy and how women’s political ambition can be activated by taking into account race, class, and party affiliation. Good Reasons to Run also uncovers the new role that nonprofit organizations are playing in preparing women for public office and analyzes how money matters for women candidates. The insightful findings in this volume make it essential reading for anyone who believes that more women in politics is critical for our democratic future.”—Denise M. Walsh, University of Virginia

“Good Reasons to Run fills a gap in the gender and politics literature by offering a comprehensive examination of women’s political ambition and the effectiveness of programs designed to recruit, train, and encourage female candidates to run for public office. The distinguished scholars contributing to this volume provide timely and essential guidance from an academic and practical perspective for organizations offering such programs as well as women who might consider a run for political office.”—Dianne Bystrom, Director Emerita, Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, Iowa State University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Introduction

Part I: Who Runs?

1. What If Women Won’t Run? Exploring Gender Gaps in Elite Political Ambition | Karen O’Connor and Alixandra B. Yanus

2. Who Runs? Data from Women Trained as Candidates | Rachel I. Bernhard, Shauna L. Shames, Rachel Silbermann, and Dawn Langan Teele

3. Political Ambition, Structural Obstacles, and the Fate of Republican Women | Malliga Och

4. Who Is Stacey Abrams? An Examination of Gender and Race Dynamics in State-Level Candidacy | Jamil Scott, Kesicia Dickinson, and Pearl K. Dowe

Part II: Why Run?

5. Ambition for Office: Women and Policy-making | Sue Thomas and Catherine Wineinger

6. From Civic Mindedness to Electoral Politics: Citizen Advisory Committees and the Decision to Run for School Board | Rebecca E. Deen and Beth Anne Shelton

7 Youth National Service and Women’s Political Ambition: The Case of Teach For America | Cecilia Hyunjung Mo and Georgia Anderson-Nilsson

Part III: Why Not Run?

8. The Uneven Geography of Candidate Emergence: How the Expectation of Winning Influences Candidate Emergence | Heather L. Ondercin

9. How Political Parties Can Diversify Their Leadership | Alejandra Gimenez Aldridge, Christopher F. Karpowitz, J. Quin Monson, and Jessica Robinson Preece

10. Late to the Party: Black Women’s Inconsistent Support from Political Parties | Nadia E. Brown and Pearl K. Dowe

11. Women’s Political Ambition and the 2016 Election | Chris W. Bonneau and Kristin Kanthak

Part IV: How Nonprofits Help Women Run for Office

12. Women Candidate Recruitment Groups in the States | Rebecca Kreitzer and Tracy Osborn

13. Are You Ready to Run®? Campaign Trainings and Women’s Candidacies in New Jersey | Kira Sanbonmatsu and Kelly Dittmar

14. Pieces of Women’s Political Ambition Puzzle: Changing Perceptions of a Political Career with Campaign Training | Monica C. Schneider and Jennie Sweet-Cushman

15. Women Running in the World: Candidate Training Programs in Comparative Perspective | Jennifer M. Piscopo

Part V: The Special Role of Money

16. Building a Campaign Donor Network: How Candidate Gender and Partisanship Impact the Campaign Money Chase | Michele L. Swers and Danielle M. Thomsen

17. Training Women to Run in an African Democracy: The Case of Benin | Martha C. Johnson

18. Paying It Forward: Candidate Contributions and Support for Diverse Candidates | Jaclyn J. Kettler

Conclusion: A Reason and a Season to Run

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

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