Critical Reasoning

Last year in the United States, women who ran for
state and national offices were about as likely to win as men. However, only about fifteen percent of the candidates for these offices were women. Therefore, the reason there are so few women who win elections for these offices is not that women have difficulty winning elections but that so few women want to run.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously undermines the conclusion given?

(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women.
(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices.
(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women.
(E) Many more women than men who want to run for
state and national offices do not because they
cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns.

Please explain the assumption behind it. A detailed explanation will be welcome.

IMO:D

Explanation if its d OA...

thx

Arg:- Less number of women are successful in election not because they have diff. in winning the election but they dont want to contest in elections.

Assumptions:- There is no other reason for to explain the scenario.

Possible cause:- What if there is some other problem, May be most of the women are housewives or something like that can be a possibility.

(A) Last year the proportion of women incumbents who won reelection was smaller than the proportion of men incumbents who won reelection.
Irrelevant (-)
(B) Few women who run for state and national offices run against other women. Hmmmm...(?)
(C) Most women who have no strong desire to be politicians never run for state and national offices. Irrelevant...we are looking for reason..(-)
(D) The proportion of people holding local offices who are women is smaller than the proportion of people holding state and national offices who are women. we are not interested in thsi....(-)
(E) Many more women than men who want to run for
state and national offices do not because they cannot get adequate funding for their campaigns. This is the one.. Alternate explanation.. (+)

Oh now i see it..

I missed that point..

I thought E supports d conclusion...--that more women are not able to run...ie fewer women run...


thx

Hi,

Whats the OA ?
Can any one explain why option B cannot be the correct choice?

Regards,
Vignesh

I feel the answer will be D