Gender & Politics: Towards a Balanced Political Landscape in Belgium: An analysis of the factors affecting the political ambition of young Belgian women

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the mechanisms that prevent young women from considering a political career. We hypothesize that women in Belgium are underrepresented because of a lack of ambition. We argue that this lack of ambition is the result of sexist behaviours and traditions and that it is the root of the problem. We surveyed young Belgian women aged 18 to 25 in order to verify our hypothesis. Our results show that our hypothesis was right but incomplete, and that another factor arises: a lack of trust in the political world.