New Hampshire Women's Pathways to Politics and Their Subsequent Impact on the Female Electorate and on the Legislative Process
Will, Hannah Jean
2012
- Prior scholarship has demonstrated that women become involved in politics in a different manner than men. Women tend to be civically involved, rather than politically involved, and come from backgrounds based in education and healthcare. Men tend to be more politically engaged and come from business and legal backgrounds. It has also been posited that women's lack of psychological engagement in ... read morepolitics is due to the perception that politics is a "man's game". Women either perceive themselves as unfit for politics or have little desire to enter into a field dominated by men. In response to this hypothesis, another was made about the importance of the visibility of women in the political arena; the more women there are visible in politics, the less politics is perceived as a man's game, and the more women will be inclined to engage themselves in politics. Finally, there has been very little literature on the impacts of women in the legislative process as it relates to all constituents. It has been demonstrated that women represent women well, but little has been done to explain why women's involvement in the political process serves to benefit everyone. / This thesis aims to explore the accuracy of prior scholarship as it relates to New Hampshire politics, as well as provide an answer to the question of why women's participation in government is important for all constituents. Using statistical analysis of legislator biographies and qualitative interviews with women from New Hampshire, I have discovered that women in NH politics do tend to come from healthcare and education backgrounds; NH women are more involved than men in both civic and political activities prior to election; during childhood and later in life, the visibility of women's public and political involvement is a positive influence on other women's political engagement; the enormity of the New Hampshire legislature and its quasi-volunteer basis creates opportunities for increased female participation; NH women's history of working in the mills may have helped to create a social norm of women working outside of the home; and finally, due to women's alternative style of conducting politics, if a critical mass of women were to be reached in the legislature, the character of the legislative process would be vastly improved. Through this thesis, we gain a better understanding of the process by which women become involved, how we can use that understanding to put more women into office, and why putting more women into office is important. /read less
- ID:
- kw52jm43f
- Component ID:
- tufts:UA005.007.051.00001
- To Cite:
- TARC Citation Guide EndNote
- Usage:
- Detailed Rights
