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“Far from Ideal:” The Gender Politics of Political Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2006

SUE TOLLESON-RINEHART  and
SUSAN J. CARROLL
SUE TOLLESON-RINEHART
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
SUSAN J. CARROLL
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
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Abstract

Political science has mirrored the political culture even as it has explained it, and at critical times the gendering of political science has left it unprepared to explain notable changes in political life. Here, we examine political science as a gendered institution across three critical time periods: the founding era of the discipline, the 1970s and 1980s, and the present. For each period, we assess the presence, position, and experiences of women in the profession; the norms of gender within the discipline; and the way political science deals with women and gender as subject matter. In general, the position of women in the discipline has improved dramatically over the course of the discipline's first century, and gender-related research has become more institutionalized. Nevertheless, political science has not yet developed a full appreciation of gender as an analytical construct.

Type
“THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL SCIENCE” ESSAYS
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 100 , Issue 4 , November 2006 , pp. 507 - 513
Copyright
© 2006 by the American Political Science Association

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