ABSTRACT
For years, after describing myself as a political psychologist and receiving a quizzical look, I elaborate this way: As a political psychologist I try to understand why people say and do the things in politics they say and do, especially where they could say and do things that are so much better. In the case of gender and politics, why have the citizens and leaders of selfproclaimed democracies been so content to explain away the domination of the political system and decision-making within it by a group comprising less than half the population? Why, in apparently democratic political systems, are women so underrepresented within the ranks of the leadership, such that when a woman achieves a notable high office, it is still remarkable? Even though a woman has now made a serious run at the presidential nomination of her party, the situation has not been completely altered.
