A Broken Pipeline: Women Running for Public Office in Ohio

In Ohio, where are women more – or less – likely to serve in public office? The pipeline theory suggests that we should see a pyramid shape in women’s representation, with more women at lower levels of the political career ladder, particularly in local and county-level offices, and fewer women as we move up the hierarchy. With original data for over 6500 seats, we explore the presence of women serving in legislative office at the local, state, and federal level in Ohio. Our analysis suggests that the pipeline theory does not help us understand the presence of women in elected office in Ohio: while there are, as expected, very few women at the top of the political career ladder, there are also very few women at the bottom. If anything, the “pyramid shape” predicted by the pipeline theory is oddly inverted. But the presence of so few women serving at the local level means that there is no “farm team” where women with political experience can be recruited to run for higher levels of office. Ultimately, our analysis shows that women are substantially underrepresented at all levels of Ohio’s political hierarchy.