American Politics & Public Policy Workshop: Rachel Silbermann, “Gender Roles, Work-Life Balance, and Running for Office”

“Gender Roles, Work-Life Balance, and Running for Office”

Rachel Silbermann, Postdoctoral Associate, The MacMillan Center, Yale University

Abstract: Political scientists have studied why so few women run for office in the United States, but explanations concerning the challenge of balancing work and family have received little empirical support. I present two forms of data to show how expectations about work-life balance affect the supply of potential women politicians. The common thread in these analyses is the fact that time spent traveling to and from work is particularly burdensome for those who spend time caring for children. Through an original survey experiment, I find that female students weigh proximity to home twice as heavily as male students do in a hypothetical decision of whether to run for higher office. Analyzing a novel dataset, I find that women are less likely to run for state legislative office in districts further from state capitals. These results suggest that absent greater gender equality in the home, women will remain underrepresented in government.