Akhnoor Sidhu
Pronouns: She/Her
Research Mentor(s): Sara Morell
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Political Science / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors: Sara Morell, Akhnoor Sidhu
Abstract
Women are severely underrepresented in government at nearly all levels of offices. The root cause of this underrepresentation occurs at the decision to run for office. Women face many barriers to running for office, which creates doubts and prevents many from trying. Barriers include, but are not limited to: social, cultural, and financial positions. This study examines the role that women candidate training organizations (WCTOs) have as an effective support system for women candidates within the United States. Research that I do is collecting race and ethnicity data for women candidates to examine the effects of WCTOs on ethnic and racial diversity of women’s representation at the state legislative level. WCTOs are organizations that provide support and guidance for women that are interested in running for office along with helping them gain confidence and provide different types of training based on the level they want to run and where they are at presently. In order to test the effect of WCTOs on women’s political ambition and representation at the state legislative level, we created a novel database of the race and ethnicity of all women state legislative candidates from 2012- 2020. This will allow for a statistical test of the effect of the founding of a Women’s Candidate Training Organization in a state on shifts in the racial and ethnic diversity of women’s representation as state legislative political candidates. Ultimately, this study tests whether women’s candidate training organizations are an effective way in filling the gap for training women candidates along with their recruitment, this will create a space which will not only effectively encourage women to run, but provide a suture for networking and resources.
