Advancing Women in Political Science: Navigating Gendered Structures of Opportunity

Although women enroll in graduate programs at similar rates to men, women are increasingly under-represented in ascending the ranks of assistant, associate, and full professors (Monroe and Chiu 2010; cf. APSA Task Force 2011). Gender equality at the highest tiers of political science would broaden the scope and strengthen the quality of our research as a collective, and would signal to male and female students that ours is an inclusive discipline. Further, this gender gap becomes all the more pressing in an era of rapid change in academia. The "leaking pipeline" of women from political science suggests that our discipline must address the presence of women in tenure-track, tenured, and full professor positions.