Women in Government

A number of studies have highlighted the disproportionately low number of women holding state and federal elective offices. This is also true of local elective offices in Wisconsin. These studies have also shown that women are less likely than men to run for elective office, and that their reasons for running often vary from those cited by men.

Jenny Erickson, Sauk County, UWEX Community Development Educator, Dan Hill, UWEX Local Government Center, Local Government Specialist, and Victoria Solomon, Green County, UWEX Community Development Educator, investigated whether these findings held true for women running for local office in Wisconsin.

The preliminary results of this study identified four major reasons for choosing not to run. These findings have appeared in the publications of the Wisconsin’s three statewide local government associations.

Besides the obvious fairness issue, the identification and reduction of systemic barriers to women’s holding public office holds the potential for improving democracy in Wisconsin by including heretofore unheard voices in the governance process.