Gender Practices and Political Careers: Explaining Trends

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women in politics is nowadays understood as a political problem to be confronted. In a schematic way, it is possible to distinguish between three axes of explanations to this phenomenon: (1) the one that emphasizes the patriarchal order in liberal political institutions, present in the studies carried on by Carole Pateman; (2) an axe that focus on cultural e socialization patterns that make politics a male field and prevent the building of “political ambition” between women, present in the studies about female candidates in the United States; and (3) those studies that underline structural constraints to female political participation, as they have, generally, less access to economical resources and much less free time than men. The article analyses the contributions in the three axes, advocating that the concept of “political field”, in Pierre Bourdieu, helps their consideration in a complex and integrated model of explanation.