--- title: Girl Scouts Research Institute: Girls Think Politics Is a Man's World description: Teenage girls are interested in politics, but negative stereotypes of female politicians make them reluctant to pursue political careers. canonical: https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-28T16:50:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:13.286Z og:title: Study Says Most Girls Think Politics Is A Man's World og:description: Teenage girls are interested in politics, but negative stereotypes of female politicians make them reluctant to pursue political careers. og:url: https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study Says Most Girls Think Politics Is A Man's World twitter:description: Teenage girls are interested in politics, but negative stereotypes of female politicians make them reluctant to pursue political careers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Poll: Most Girls Think Politics Is a Man's World  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 28, 2014 4:50 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 28, 2014 4:50 PM UTC Teenage girls are interested in politics, according to a recent study, but the negative stereotypes of female politicians make them reluctant to pursue political careers. According to the [Girls and Politics Pulse Poll](http://www.girlscouts.org/research/pdf/girls%5Fand%5Fpolitics.pdf) released this month by the Girl Scout Research Institute, 67% of American girls between the ages of 11 and 17 are interested in politics. But only 32% believe society encourages women to be politicians, and, perhaps most dismaying, 74% believe that if they were to go into politics, they would have to work harder than a man to be taken seriously. With women currently holding only [18.5% of the seats](http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast%5Ffacts/levels%5Fof%5Foffice/documents/cong.pdf) in Congress, these results unfortunately aren’t entirely surprising. “Girls can’t be what they can’t see,” Girl Scouts chief executive Anna Maria Chávez [told the Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/10/28/girl-scouts-poll-suggests-that-teens-see-politics-as-a-mans-world/). But the girls who responded to the survey had some suggestions for how to change the perception of politics as a man’s world–they want more support from teachers, mentors and the media. A majority of girls said mentoring by current female politicians, after school programs focused on civic engagement and more positive media coverage of women in politics would encourage them to pursue a career politics. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/"},"headline":"Poll: Most Girls Think Politics Is a Man's World","datePublished":"2014-10-28T16:50:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:13.286Z","description":"A Girl Scouts Research Institute study reveals that 37% of girls want to become a politician, but they need mentors","url":"https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/","keywords":["Living","politics","Girl Scouts","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3543905/girl-scouts-poll-girls-politics-gender/","name":"Poll: Most Girls Think Politics Is a Man's World"}}]}] ```