February 15, 2006 9:09 PM

Now hiring - women in politics
Posted by Diane Danielsonat 9:09 PM

Looking for a new career? Eileen McNamara's column today looks at the lack of women in Massachusetts politics:

Figuring out why women are so scarce in the corridors of power is neither a new challenge nor one confined to Massachusetts, of course. Simmons College is holding a conference next month on the national underrepresentation of women in politics. What is curious here is that after a period of slow, incremental gains -- in 1987, only 18 percent of the Legislature was female -- progress has stalled.

Part of the problem, Mattison suspects, is that men tend to run for public office earlier in life and then enjoy incumbents' overwhelming odds of reelection. Women often wait until their children are grown to launch political careers, a strategy that leaves less time to build seniority and exercise the clout needed to accomplish much.