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Women in Political Science: Some Preliminary Observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Victoria Schuck
Victoria Schuck*
Affiliation:
Mount Holyoke College
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Abstract

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Type
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Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , Fall 1969 , pp. 642 - 653
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1969

Footnotes

1

The writer is indebted to James M. Bruce and Marjorie S. Childers of the Sociology Department at Mount Holyoke College tor their suggestions on the presentation of the data; to Mae K. King, Staff Associate of the APSA for obtaining statistics on women members of the Association from the 1968 Biographical Directory; and to Nan W. Bauer, Sandra K. Borys, Susan A. Shapiro, Holly Sidford, and Gill B. Singer, Mount Holyoke undergraduates for assisting in the processing of the questionnaire.

References

2 The total includes theses listed in political science, international law and relations, and public administration. Institutions awarding Ph.D.'s customarily required publication until the early ′30s when the practice began to wane. The Library of Congress list of printed doctoral dissertations began in 1912 and is used as a source through 1933.

3 The testimony of several faculty women, American and European, who received their Ph.D.'s in the 1920's.

4 See Bernard, Jessie, Academic Women, Pennsylvania Park, Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1964.Google Scholar

5 The median number of Ph.D.'s won by women 1940–1949 was 5, minimum 1 and maximum 14. For 1950–1959, median 11.5, maximum 15 and minimum 7. For 1960–1968, median 21, maximum 65, and minimum 12.

6 Figures for Ph.D.'s completed do not always agree. In the ′20s, ′30s, and ′40s, when reports were biennial, the annual figures were arrived at by interpolation. See “Earned Doctorates in the Social Sciences … by Subject and Institution,” American Universities and Colleges 8th-10th ed., 1966–1968, pp. 1692–1693; U. S. Library of Congress, Catalog Division, A List of Doctoral Dissertations…. Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1921 ff.; Index to American Doctoral Dissertations, Combined with Dissertation Abstracts…. Compiled for the Association of Research Libraries, University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1958 ff.; U.S. Office of Education, Earned Degrees Conferred by Higher Educational Institutions, 1955–1956, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957 Google Scholar; U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956 ff. If these sources were used, the percent of Ph.D.'s received by females in political science would look like this:

1912–1920 5.9 (7) 1940–1949 6.4 (52)

1921–1929 10.1 (19) 1950–1959 5.8 (113)

1930–1939 8.8 (45) 1960–1968 8.6 (234)

The percent of females receiving Ph.D.'s in the entire country would look like this:

1912–1920 12.6 (647) 1940–1949 14.1 (4450)

1921–1929 14.6 (1607) 1950–1959 9.8 (8239)

1930–1939 14.7 (4035) 1960–1968 11.3 (15.550)

For Table 1, the National Academy of Sciences tables were selected as the most consistent through 1961.

7 The proportion of women in political science was 9.7 percent in 1967; for the country at large 11.3 in 1967; 11.4 percent for political science in 1968; and 12.5 for the country in 1968.

8 The rejection of the “feminine mystique” and the ingesting of the middle aged woman into the labor force, both phenomena being forerunners of the present professional movements, began in the early ′60's. Women In professional groups have sought and been sought by the radical left groups. A petition at the fall meeting of the Association in 1968 urged the APSA Council to establish a special commission for the study of the status of women within the profession. The Caucus for a New Political Science elected a woman to its governing offices In 1968. The Caucus submitted a resolution of the status of women for consideration of the APSA Council in the spring of 1969. A representative of the Caucus in consultation with the APSA Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession worked out a modification of the resolution, and this was approved with some additions at the business meeting of the Association in New York in September 1969. See as typical of popular discussion “Woman's Changing Role in America,” In U.S. News and World Report, September 8, 1969, pp. 44–46; Petchul, Sherry, “Woman's Liberation, the Longest Revolution?” in Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 1969.Google Scholar

9 The writer wishes to express appreciation to the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession for use of the data which are available with the permission of the Committee.

The nonresponse from institutions in the 6–10 faculty group was 8.3 percent; in the 11–15 group, 2.5 percent; in the 16–25; 3.7 percent; and in the 26+, 92 percent. The faculty members in the nonresponding combined departments total 921 and in other nonresponding departments 1,101, making a grand total of 2,022. Faculty data on non-responding departments, compiled from American Universities and Colleges, 10th edition, Washington, D.C., American Council on Education, 1968.

Seventy-five women's colleges, many of which are church related, did not respond. Some 47 of them have no political science faculty or have a combined department. Eighteen in the 1–5 faculty range did not respond.

10 It should be noted that the maximum number of women reported was seven at San Fernando Valley State College In California, which is in the 26+ grouping. Two institutions have six women: San Jose State College and Brooklyn College, each in the 26+ faculty category. Three institutions report five women each: Michigan State University in the 26+ category; California State College at Fullerton and the University of Minnesota School of Public Administration in the 16–25 group. Eleven institutions report 4 faculty women each: Georgetown, Florida State, American, University of Maryland, Indiana University, UC at Berkeley, and the City University of New York, in the 26+ group; Montana State College of Mineral Science and Technology in the 11–15 group; and Barnard, Trinity College, and Tennessee State University at Nashville In the 6–10 group. Six women's colleges indicate a majority of women in their departments.

11 The National Science Foundation, National Register Survey for 1968 gives the number of women holders of Ph.D.'s as 207 and M.A.'s as 251 (474 responses).

12 Almost 39 percent of the women listed in the Directory gave no information about themselves. The data were compiled by Mae C. King, staff associate, APSA. Also see “Women in the Political Science Profession,” Washington, D.C., APSA, October 1968 (mimeograph) and “Women in the Political Science Profession ?— 1969 Addition to the October 1968 Report,” APSA, October 1969 (mimeograph).

13 Ibid. The category “American Govrnment…” is an ad hoc catch-all one, because the members in specific fields are too small to be meaningful otherwise. For comparisons with holders of doctorates in all fields see P.S. Winter 1969, vol. 2, pp. 12–13 and Summer 1969, vol. 2, p. 54. In 1963 Somit and Tanenhaus listed the proportion of political scientists in each field American Government, 48 percent; International Relations, 20 percent; Comparative Government and Political Theory, each 12 percent. See Somit, Albert and Tanenhaus, Joseph, American Political Science, New York, New York, The Atherton Press, 1967, p. 54.Google Scholar

14 Eleven percent (53) of the institutions in the sample either listed “no major” (35) or omitted the number (18).

15 U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Special Report on Women and Graduate Study, Resources for Medical Research, Report No. 13, June 1968, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar

16 Ibid.