Career Progression: Entry, Exit, and Turnover

Abstract

Recent scholarship has moved beyond questions of access and descriptive representation to examine how political careers are structured, experienced, and constrained over time. As political institutions become more diverse, new questions arise about whether increased inclusion translates into influence, authority, and durability within political office. This panel engages with a growing interest in the gendered—and intersecting—dynamics of political careers, emphasizing how power hierarchies, organizational practices, and informal norms shape trajectories of entry, advancement, stagnation, and exit. Rather than treating political office as a static outcome, the panel foregrounds careers as processes unfolding within institutions marked by unequal distributions of resources, status, and legitimacy. It highlights how dynamics of discrimination, recognition, and valuation operate across different stages of political life, often in subtle and cumulative ways. By shifting attention from who gets in to how careers evolve once inside—and who is able to stay, advance, or transition out—the panel contributes to broader debates about power, inequality, and representation in contemporary political institutions.

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