In a meticulously researched study, Nichole M. Bauer masterfully takes the reader through a wealth of scholarship that looks at women as candidates for elective office, assessing what we know about the underrepresentation of women in elective politics, the perceived qualifications of candidates, and the information that voters receive and process in making their vote decision. Bauer writes in an engaging manner, making a review of complex research drawn from several disciplines accessible to readers while skillfully weaving a survey of women’s political participation spanning more than 200 years.

Bauer builds from one chapter to the next, adding new data sets that provide missing pieces of a puzzle (see her subtitle), while drawing upon the disciplines of political science, sociology, psychology, communications, and gender studies. She expands consideration of how gender affects the perception of candidate qualifications and uses social role theory to explain how political leadership is perceived in the United States and thus affects the qualities ascribed to candidates viewed as top contenders for high-level political office.

Bauer introduces her study with a focus on the “gendered qualifications gap.” In both 2008 and 2016, challengers and the medi