From ballot to binder: how women in political appointments tell a different story of political ambition than women in elected office.

Despite some progress, women are still woefully underrepresented in running and holding elected office in the US. But what about political appointments? In new research which uses state-level survey data, Kaitlin Sidorsky looks at whether or not women’s political ambitions change when they are appointed rather than elected. She finds that while more women could be found in appointed rather than elected offices, the more qualified many felt for higher office, the less ambitious they were to achieve it.