Although more women are successfully breaching the social, economic and
political barriers that can prevent them from participating as electoral candidates, few
women campaign for elected office. A dearth of female candidates may be
understandable, given research demonstrating that women tend to avoid competition and
competitive environments. Thus, elections – competitive by design – may attract fewer
women than men. This thesis posits that the inherent competitiveness of electoral politics
may deter women from campaigning for office. However, this work also forwards that
competitive sport socialization during adolescence may prepare women for electoral
competition. This paper examines the results of a self-administered survey mailed to 449
female candidates for municipal office. The survey investigated candidates’ adolescent
experiences in competitive sports and attitudes relating to internal political efficacy. The
results appear to demonstrate a strong correlation between competitive sport socialization
and either positive or neutral evaluations of political competition. / x, 163 leaves ; 29 cm
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/2475 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Coffman, Jeffrey, University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science |
| Contributors | Jansen, Harold |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Political Science, c2010, Arts and Science, Department of Political Science |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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