A Level Playing Field? Political Ambition & Legal Office

• In Event: Political Ambition

Abstract

It is no secret that women are underrepresented at all levels of office in the United States. To understand this under-representation, previous work has turned to the supply of political candidates – particularly the willingness or desire to run for office (political ambition) among women and men to explain this disparity. The extant literature suggests that women are less likely to see themselves as qualified to run for office and are less likely to desire to run. However, the evidence for a gender gap in political ambition has largely come from studies on legislative and executive offices. We know a great deal less about political ambition for legal office (judicial and prosecutorial positions). Though there is some evidence that female lawyers see themselves as similarly qualified as their male counterparts for legal office and express high political ambition for these types of positions, there is a great deal more we can learn not just about who is willing to run for legal office (by race and gender), but who votes for these candidates.

For this project, we develop a novel dataset of licensed attorneys in the state of Louisiana and all parish and state-level races from 1984 to 2017. Louisiana is unique because it not only holds elections for legal office but also collects demographic data of candidates who run for office. With this data, we can capture the universe of potential candidates for legal office as well as examine who emerges for legal office over time. We pay particular attention to patterns of emergence for women of color given the notable elections of women of color to legal office across the country. This work not only allows us to speak to the supply of candidates for legal office (by race and gender) but also to examine how these factors matter along with state and local political factors that may serve to encourage or discourage emergence for legal office.

Authors

• Elizabeth Lane, North Carolina State University

• Jamil Shatema Scott, Georgetown University