Leveraging Diversity in Political Science for Institutional and Disciplinary Change

Sinclair-Chapman, Valeria

doi:10.1017/s1049096515000232

Cited by 29 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…2 The choice not to focus on (or to leave) STEM as a career for girls and women is not because of innate differences in ability but rather because of the same "push-pull" factors that continue to keep women "opting out" of business and political-leadership positions (Hewlett and Luce 2005; see also Shames 2017;Valian 2004;and Williams 2000). The "push" is leaving a field of study or work because one feels forced out or unwelcome; the "pull" is about choosing to leave to do something else that is more appealing or to do the same thing in a place that feels more welcoming (Sinclair-Chapman 2015). In other sciences and in business-leadership research, studies abound on the push-pull factors that lead women (especially women of color) to opt out of male-dominated professions.…”

Section: Can Girls Do Math? (If So Why Avoid It?)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Diversity, and Methods in Political Science: A Theory of Selection and Survival Biases

Shames

Wise

2017

APSC

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At a recent major political science conference, Tamara (not her real name) presented an in-depth qualitative study several years in the making, only to have the panelist speaking after her begin his remarks by saying, "And now back to the hardcore data." By this, he meant quantitative, large-n data, which his work utilized. This moment highlights a series of tensions in our field relating to gender and methodology, and their effects, which this article explores and elucidates.T he state of gender politics in political science is not nearly as "far from ideal" as it once was (Judith Shklar, quoted in Hoffman 1989, 833) but neither is it gender-neutral. The "inhospitable institutional climate" cited in the 2005 American Political Science Association (APSA) Report on the Status of Women in Political Science persists in multiple subtle (and sometimes notso-subtle) ways, as well as in certain spaces (i.e., departments, conferences, and subfields) far more than in others.One of the most obvious areas of gender disproportionality is in the methodology subfield. When areas of the field lag behind in gender integration, it is cause for concern. This is particularly acute for political methodology, however, because it is both a gender-integration laggard and the area of the field that develops the "rules of the game" for good political science. As such, political methodology is not simply a standalone subfield in the discipline; it also informs the work done in most other subfields. The lack of diversity in political methodology, therefore, raises the uncomfortable possibility that some of our "rules of the game" may embed biases based on the relative privilege of those making them.Given the disproportionate focus on and status of highly complex statistical methodology within political science as a whole, the fact that such methodology is far more likely to be the province of men than women is concerning, from both a methodological standpoint and a gendered perspective. As practitioners and critical observers of this discipline, and as methodology instructors ourselves, we are concerned about the increasing status of complex statistical methodology (and the perception that it is somehow "better" than qualitative or far simpler quantitative work) as well as persisting gender disparities in the field-and we see these trends as linked. To be clear, our aim is not to rehash the qualitativeversus-quantitative debate but rather to add a new angle: this cleavage in research methods is not gender-neutral.Anecdotes like Tamara's abound but systematic data on these questions can be difficult to find or collect. Therefore, this article presents a theory based on initial data rather than welltested hypotheses, but these are ideas worthy of discussion and further testing. What systematic data we have found-coupled with useful previous literature and our own experiences-allow us to posit a complex and interactive set of gender-related forces operating within political science and particularly affecting graduate students.Spec...

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Section: Can Girls Do Math? (If So Why Avoid It?)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, Diversity, and Methods in Political Science: A Theory of Selection and Survival Biases

Shames

Wise

2017

APSC

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“…As the recent PS: Political Science & Politics symposium on diversity in political science made clear, scholars of color continue to be underrepresented and marginalized in political science, and they are leaving the discipline in large numbers (Alexander-Floyd 2015; Mershon and Walsh 2015; Sinclair-Chapman 2015). Although Sinclair-Chapman (2015) noted that further research on retention is necessary, she clarified that conditions in the academy undermine scholars of color—particularly women of color—at all academic ranks. Although citation rates are only one part of the academy, they have a major influence on hiring, promotion, and tenure.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negating the Gender Citation Advantage in Political Science

Atchison

2017

APSC

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Open-access (OA) advocates have long promoted OA as an egalitarian alternative to traditional subscription-based academic publishing. The argument is simple: OA gives everyone access to high-quality research at no cost. In turn, this should benefit individual researchers by increasing the number of people reading and citing academic articles. As the OA movement gains traction in the academy, scholars are investing considerable research energy to determine whether there is an OA citation advantage—that is, does OA increase an article’s citation counts? Research indicates that it does. Scholars also explored patterns of gender bias in academic publishing and found that women are cited at lower rates in many disciplines. Indeed, in many disciplines, men enjoy a significant and positive gender citation effect (GCE) compared to their female colleagues. This article combines these research areas to determine whether the OA citation advantage varies by gender. Using Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney (WMW) tests, the nonparametric analog to the independent samples T-test, I conclude that OA benefits male and female political scientists at similar rates. Thus, OA negates the gender citation advantage that typically accrues to male political scientists.

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“…The authors of the report urged political scientists to recognize the diversifying demographics of our country and to produce scholarship that reflects the rapidly changing national and global contexts in which we write. Political science has been slow to heed this advice (Sinclair-Chapman, 2015). As such, the discipline and the larger American political class was unprepared to assess President Trump's victory in 2016.…”

Section: The Bad Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Glass half full: cautious optimism and the future of Black women political elites in America”

Brown

Gershon

2020

J. Race Ethnicity Politics

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In this essay, we place Black women's electoral challenges and opportunities in context. We situate this year of “Black Women Candidates” as an anomaly, but one that has been a long in the making. We also point to the appeal of Black women lawmakers among voters to mirror Alberder Gillespie's claims in this epigraph. We note that Black women have long been the backbone of the Democratic Party and are willing to use their clout for their own political means. Furthermore, given the unique ways that Black women represent their constituents, an influx of Black women into governing bodies may have a substantial, lasting impact on policy-making. We conclude with insights from our own research and that of other scholars on Black women to demonstrate future avenues of scholarly research.

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Leveraging Diversity in Political Science for Institutional and Disciplinary Change

Cited by 29 publications

References 7 publications

Gender, Diversity, and Methods in Political Science: A Theory of Selection and Survival Biases

Gender, Diversity, and Methods in Political Science: A Theory of Selection and Survival Biases

Negating the Gender Citation Advantage in Political Science

“Glass half full: cautious optimism and the future of Black women political elites in America”

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