Experiencing gender in UK political science: The results of a practitioner survey

Abstract

Does gender matter in the way in which we 'perform' academia? Drawing on the results of a practitioner survey, we argue that gender does matter, culturally and structurally, and can be institutionalised so that women are disadvantaged. This is not to deny women's agency or the advances that they have made. Rather, we highlight the inequality of the playing field in which the academic endeavour is conducted.Uniquely, we ask UK political scientists about their perceptions of the impact of gender in their working lives and explore their views on recommendations for change. Experiencing gender in UK political science: the results of a practitioner surveyMen are descriptively and substantively over-represented in UK political science.They constitute well over four-fifths of the professoriate (Bates et al 2012) and are more likely to get published and cited than are women (Williams et al 2015). In what follows we seek to render explicit the ways in which male and female political scientists experience and perform gender. Drawing on the results of surveys of members of the Political Studies Association (PSA), we demonstrate that there is a complex combination of perceptions which feed in to performances of gender in the daily life of the profession. By unpacking colleagues' own perceptions of the impacts of gender, we seek to identify ways in which women's place in UK political science may be improved.Our study builds on existing research that has documented the underrepresentation of women in the discipline. It makes an important contribution to our knowledge of political scientists' own perceptions of gender in the profession and their beliefs about the barriers that face them. It also contributes to the broader debate over whether men and women are agents of their own careers or whether their careers are structured by social and institutional norms, practices and values. Our basic argument is that institutional practices and cultures, as well as the words and labels that underpin them, structurally disadvantage women political scientists. We find that male and female scholars appear to share similar values but different experiences of academic life and different perceptions of the barriers that affect their careers. These differences in turn make it harder for the profession as a whole to address those practices and cultures that work against women. However, we do not seek to deny agency to anyone seeking to tackle the over-representation of white men at senior levels in the profession. Women have risen to the top, as have scholars from other 3 disadvantaged groups. Nevertheless, if we want to encourage a more pluralistic, diverse discipline, we argue it is not enough to sit back and wait for it to happen; rather we may need to think proactively about changing cultures.We must also note at the outset that our focus on gender in this paper is not intended to downplay the discrimination faced by other groups in academia 1 . Political scientists from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are likely to enco...

Women in the Profession: An Update on the Gendered Composition of the Discipline and Political Science Departments in the UK

“…Similarly, with regard to the gender seniority gap, it makes (at least some) intuitive sense that having a female Head of Unit is associated with a lower gender seniority gap (both in terms of association, although no issues with collinearity were reported, and in terms of culture) and that membership of the Russell Group university mission group is associated with a higher gender seniority gap. These findings are supported by research concerning the (de)valuation of research undertaken by women (Benschop and Brouns, 2003; Kantola, 2008; Mitchell et al, 2013), the impact of teaching and administration loads on female academics both in terms of research outputs and career progression (Allen and Savigny, 2016; Atchison, 2018; Mitchell and Hesli, 2013), and the impact of (gendered) workplace cultures (Bird, 2011; Savigny, 2014).…”

“…Thus, while we have uncovered some broader contextual factors that appear to be important in understanding the status of women in political science, there is a lot that we do not yet know. For example, it may be that institutional policies and informal practices concerning parental leave, promotion and opportunities for departmental expansion and career progression (Epifanio and Troeger, 2019; Troeger, 2018), the interplay of intersectional factors (Begum and Saini, 2019; Emejulu, 2019), and/or (in)formal mentoring and networking initiatives (Allen and Savigny, 2016; APSA, 2005; Atchison, 2018; Henehan and Sarkees, 2009; Kantola, 2008; Savigny, 2014) play an important role in explaining the numerical presence and seniority of female academics within the discipline and which have not been captured, or cannot be captured, in the research design employed here.…”

“…Since our survey, there has been a significant growth in the literature examining the gendered nature of political science across a variety of regional contexts, including the UK (Allen and Savigny, 2016; Awesti et al, 2016; Briggs and Harrison, 2015; Savigny, 2014; Williams et al, 2015), the US (Mitchell et al, 2013; Mitchell and Hesli, 2013; Mitchell and Martin, 2018; Monroe et al, 2014), Europe (Abels and Woods, 2015; Ballen et al, 2018; Bates and Savigny, 2015b; Elizondo, 2015; Kantola, 2015), Australia and New Zealand (Johnson, 2014; Sawer and Curtin, 2016) and Latin America (Rocha Carpiuc, 2016). Despite formal equality policies and measures designed to address structural inequalities, this research highlights the continued barriers women face within political science departments as well as wider practices within academia that can serve to disadvantage women.…”

“…Despite formal equality policies and measures designed to address structural inequalities, this research highlights the continued barriers women face within political science departments as well as wider practices within academia that can serve to disadvantage women. Women can face cultural barriers such as exclusion from ‘male’ support networks, the devaluing of their research and the marginalisation of their contributions (Allen and Savigny, 2016; Atchison, 2018; Kantola, 2008; Savigny, 2014). There is an academic culture that tends to prioritise and overvalue publication in high-ranking journals rather than other forms of research collaboration and tasks relating to the management of the department and the pastoral care of students.…”

Early Career Researchers’ Experiences of Post-Maternity and Parental Leave Provision in UK Politics and International Studies Departments: A Heads of Department and Early Career Researcher Survey

“…Our research is concerned with understanding the ways in which these issues may be particularly acute among ECRs combining this challenging point in their career with parenthood. Existing research has documented gender pay gaps and the under-representation of women in senior positions, the ‘chilly’ institutional climate that women face as well as the gendered cultures and systematic gendered barriers experienced in universities (Allen and Savigny, 2016; Bates et al, 2012; Bird, 2011; Henehan and Sarkees, 2009; Savigny, 2014). Within the extant literature on ECRs, there is increased recognition that female ECRs experience a unique set of challenges and are more likely to face barriers in completing their postgraduate study and establishing their academic careers due to a lack of supportive environments, a lack of mentoring as well as increased likelihood of being trapped in teaching heavy roles (Ackers and Gill, 2005; Crabb and Ekberg, 2014; White, 2006).…”