ABSTRACT
Women have had equal voting rights for almost a century, yet men continue to exercise overwhelmingly disproportionate infl uence when it comes to political participation. Why? It’s not that women don’t cast ballots. They now outnumber men in the electorate by about 10 million votes. Indeed, in every national election since 1964-nearly fi fty years-more women have voted than men. Yet women remain a minority of policy makers: 17 percent of US senators and representatives, 12 percent of governors and 23 percent of all statewide elective officers, 24 percent of state legislators, and 17 percent of mayors (cities of more than 30,000).1
