Neither am I

Ezra Klein has a great article tracing the reasons women are so underrepresented as politicians. The most interesting point is that women win at the same rate men do when they run for office, but they do not run nearly as often. Klein links this both to not being asked and distaste for the political process, but he also touches on a phenomenon I find far more interesting. Women are much less likely to see themselves as qualified to run for office.

There are ways in which this feels like an indictment. I warn you, I am about to get personal and completely illogical, but this glancing reference feels far too familiar in the way I deal with things in my own life and it seems to be a tendency in some of my female friends as well. We often talk about the way women need to be more qualified than male competitors to succeed, but I wonder how often this is because of our own willingness to judge ourselves more harshly.

Inside Higher Ed also has a piece on the wage gap that doesn't come to many conclusions, except that the gap seems to be concentrated in research universities, but does have some interesting numbers about the issue.