But here in the Keystone State, a six-way debate before last month's gubernatorial primary was as badly in need of a woman's touch as the decor of a frat house basement taproom.
Not only were there no females seeking the governor's mansion, but only one of four U.S. Senate seekers - frequent GOP also-ran Peg Luksik - was a woman, and she lost with 18 percent of the vote.
That's standard operating procedure around these parts. Pennsylvania has never had a female governor nor a woman in the U.S. Senate, and only two of 19 current House members are women, below the average for the other states. And there's never been a female mayor of Philadelphia.
The Center for Women and American Politics at Rutgers University ranks Pennsylvania 45th in percentage of female state lawmakers. The only states with a worse rating are, in order, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.
But even in South Carolina a woman, state lawmaker Nikki Haley, is the front-runner in the governor's race despite having to fight back allegations - which she strongly denied - of adultery as well as slurs on her Sikh heritage.
Why is Pennsylvania such a tramp when it comes to electing ladies?
"I think the state's pretty conservative, and that makes it hard for women to break through that glass ceiling," said Mary Ellen Balchunis, a La Salle University political scientist active in Democratic politics in Delaware County.
But Balchunis and other experts say there's no single, one-stop explanation for the paucity of women in Pennsylvania politics. Instead, they cite a combination of factors - including social conservatism, strong political parties that discourage outsiders, as well as election laws that favor the old guard.
