Beyond Elections: Unpacking the Gender Gap in Political Ambition Across Political Roles

The gender gap in political ambition is often suggested as a key factor in women’s political underrepresentation. Recent work highlights that this gap is prominent for elected positions, but less for non-elected positions. This article compares ambition levels for a non-elected function as political advisor that is assigned either competitively or not. This comparison–alongside an elected, competitive mandate–allows us to investigate whether gender differences in ambition occur for elected, competitive and/or political positions in general. Rather than analyzing a selected sample (typically youth party members), we survey the general (young) population (in Flanders (Belgium)). Our analyses show persistent gender gaps across all political roles, demonstrating that the gender gap in ambition is not solely driven by competition or elections. We also find that this gap mostly disappears once political attitudes are controlled for, pointing to structural influences behind women’s lower levels of political ambition.