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July 18, 2008
The right number of women in politics
The problem, it turns out, is less underperformance than underrepresentation. When women run, they perform at least as well as men. But they don't run nearly so often, and our country -- with its weak party system and aversion to quotas—does nothing to specifically redress the resulting disparity. This might be why the percentage of women in Congress puts us in 68th place worldwide, nestled right between Bolivia and El Salvador, and only a couple of spots beneath famously feminist Tajikistan.Beyond Hillary: By Invitation Only
This could be the difference between the marginal female candidate and the average one. For whatever reason, the US might have female candidates that are on average of lower quality than other nations but the marginal candidate is the same quality as the marginal male one. If you think of the parties as controlling the gender of their candidates by who they nominate, then they should toy with the gender mix until the benefits of getting the best candidate is canceled out by the marginal gender effect. Perhaps in America, the minority of women with the talents and drive to have a successful political careers instead go into the military, education, industry, or the clergy.
Posted by OneEyedMan at July 18, 2008 3:04 PM
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