Win or Lose, Women Are Seeking Election for the Long Haul

Women’s electoral candidacies skyrocketed nationwide in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, which many saw as good news for democracy. But behavioral scholars have long maintained that women are more risk-averse than men, and thus are not as likely to sustain a prolonged political career — involving election losses as well as wins — the way men candidates traditionally have. A new University of California, Davis, study suggests, however, that nationwide data show women are in politics for the long haul.