Advisor(s)
Bruce A. Wallin
Abstract
Through literature analysis and interviews with past and present female elected officials, ""Lessons from Female Massachusetts Elected Officials: How Women Can be Encouraged to Run for Political Office"" explores why there are so few women in Massachusetts elected office and how this issue can be addressed. As elected offices are meant to be allow the people to choose representatives, one could ideally expect that at least half of all elected persons would be female. However, politics has hitorically been a male-dominated field, and women have only begun to run for office at an increasing rate in the laste couple of decades. A government claiming to be representative that does not in fact proportionately represent the full range of its people cannot govern appropriately or legitimately. Women must be encourage dto run for political office so taht their voices can be heard in all areas of lawmaking, as their experineces add a new and very different perspective to policy. There is a basic assumption that female elected officials will create change in the political arena because men and women are inherently different. However, the impact of having more women legislators cannot be fully known until more succeed at achieving elected office.
Date Accepted
May 2006
Subject Categories
Women
Keywords
Political science, Female politicians, Politics
Degree Grantor
Northeastern University
Publication Date
4-29-2006
Permanent URL
Recommended Citation
O'Leary, Cristin R., "Lessons from female Massachusetts elected officials: how women can be encouraged to run for political office" (2006). Honors Junior/Senior Projects. Paper 26. http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d10001244