Political Recruitment to the Australian Legislature: Toward an Explanation of Women's Electoral Disadvantages

Abstract

Over the last decade and a half, substantial scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating women continue to lag significantly behind men in their attainment of electoral offices, particularly legislative ones. A range of explanations has been advanced as to why so few women move into political leadership roles. Randall (1987) divides these explanations into two broad categories which encompass supply and demand factors. The supply factors include culturesocialization explanations which view women as being socialized into feminine, non-competitive roles, which do not accord with political activity, seen as being characterized by aggression and competition. Supply factors also include resource explanations, which focus on women's lack of such resources as education, employment, social class, and political experience, all of which militate against their political involvement. The final supply explanation identifies situational factors such as the number and ages of children and the availability of child care as determining factors. The demand factors which inhibit women's electoral success tend to