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Smart and policy-oriented women -- women who can run circles around comparable men, who would make excellent governors -- are still being punished like adolescent girls who lose popularity in junior high because they are too smart.

Georgia Duerst-Lahti, a political scientist at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Georgia Duerst-Lahti, a political scientist at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.