Many researches dealing with the candidates for political office claim that the latter most often come from either the middle or the upper middle class as well as from a restricted number of respectable professions (law, journalism, academia, public administration); that they posses high cultural capital and are in contact with large and differentiated social networks (Davis, 2010; Cairney, 2007; Dolan, Deckman in Swers, 2007; Palmer in Simon, 2006; Cairney, 2007). The research that has been conducted in Slovenia came to similar conclusions (Antić et all., 2003; Antić Gaber, 2007, Antić Gaber 2012): there are no big differences between female and male candidates, but the man and women that want to enter the political field have clearly different pathways. In addition to the question about their social origin, our research also put forward the questions concerning the obstacles and encouragements that women who want to enter the political field face – either in the public sphere: within their political parties, from the voters, their previous professions and employers or in their private lives: from their friends and colleagues, families and partners. In a way this research also tests some of the findings from previous research done by Burns, Scholzman and Verba (The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation, 2001) in post socialist environments. The paper analyses the results of empirical survey completed in 2011 (32 semi-structured interviews with male and female ministers and female and male MPs in Slovenia), trying to find out what are their perceptions related to their pathway to political arena. The most clear difference between female and male politicians is that the same factors (political parties and politicians, family and partners) play a significant role in their decision to enter the political race, but have very different effects on their decisions.
