Ashley Judd’s decision not to run for Mitch McConnell’s seat in the Kentucky Senatorial Race disappointed me, and not because I have a thing for entertainers turned politicians. While the 113th Congress has a record number of women legislatures, 78 congresswomen and 20 senators, but that’s still not even close to being the equal split you would expect when women make up half the voting population. And we’re still only ranked 77th internationally when it comes to female participation in politics. This week American University’s Women and Politics Institute released some new research showing what everyone had already gathered, that women are less likely to run or even consider running for elected office than their male counterparts. Here are some facts:

• An equal amount of high school boys and girls are involved in student government
• Among college aged students 15% of men say being mayor is an ideal job versus only 8% of women
• Among young adults 63% of men say they’ve considered running for office in the future vs. 43% of women
• 66% of millennial women say having a high paying career is important versus 59% of men

These statistics are extremely telling when it comes to where our problems with getting more women to run for office lie. The equal interest in government between the sexes in high school changes dramatically when students enter college, suggesting there is something serious happening when women begin thinking about careers. The statistics show that women actually value a high paying career more than men, something indicative of the well documented achievement gap between genders in this country. So if women have the same early exposure to government, and the same ambition and drive for a successful career, why aren’t they looking to enter politics? Here are a few hypotheses:

Not Enough Role Models

Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton are the exception, not the rule. It can be tough to women to imagine themselves in office when they have no one to compare their narratives to.  Furthermore the historical lack of female representation in this country has a negative effect on changing the status quo, as women are not encouraged by family or teachers to enter politics because when they think of politics they do not think of a “woman’s job”.

Thinking of Family First

Despite all the headway women are making in learning to balance ambitious careers as well as building a family and managing a home life, the realm on politics is completely different from the business world. Running for office requires a lot of time and travel, and once in office those burdens of family life only increase. Young women who want it all, that is a career and family, may be ruling out politics as a profession because the sacrifices it requires of the family are simply too much.

Fear of Risk and Rejection

In a Texas A&M survey, it was found that most women considering running for office would not do so if the odds of winning were less than 20% whereas men’s thoughts did not change even if the odds of winning were low. While I am no psychologist, I would wager this being on the fact that women are more risk adverse than their male counterparts, and also fear personal and professional rejection on a greater scale. While these are generalizations, I think they do play a part in why more women are willing to jump head first into a political career, where nothing is guaranteed.

Intimidation of the Man’s Game

This point is based on personal experience, but I think its one worth sharing. I was voted “most likely to become president” in my high school year book. I went to college to study politics with the aim of one day working on Capitol Hill. However, going to school in DC and being surrounded by mostly men who shared my same aspirations terrified me. They were all so aggressive and competitive  and it made me not only doubt myself and my abilities, but upset me enough to make me change my professional direction. I am not placing blame in this observation, rather, I am expressing my surprise at finding out how much of a “man’s game” politics was when I first got to D.C., a fact which intimidated me so much, I ran for the door.

I wish I could wrestle out some hope for a way forward from these grim facts, but I’m afraid I can’t. To change these statistics would require such a huge over-arcing cultural shift, that I don’t expect anything to change drastically for decades at least. Jennifer Lawless, a co-author of the American University report sums up the reality most succinctly, “Given this persistent gender gap in political ambition, we are a long way from a political reality in which young women and men are equally likely to aspire to seek and hold elective office in the future.”

For inspirations sake, here’s a slideshow of some of the most powerful female politicos in the world: