Election aversion means that leveling the electoral playing field may not be enough to convince women to run for office

Of the 535 seats in the 114th U.S. Congress, women hold 104, or just over 19 percent. While this is the greatest number of women to hold office in Congressional history, there is clearly a great deal of work to be done before equality is achieved. In new research, Kristin Kanthak and Jonathan Woon look at the reasons behind the continuing lack of representation of women in politics, even after efforts to level the electoral playing field. They find that women are much less willing to compete in elections than men, even if they are equally qualified and confident in their own abilities.