Small Grant for Exploratory Research: Women's Advancement in Political Science, A Proposed Workshop for 2004 in Washington, DC

女性一直是并继续是政治科学全职教师的少数，目前的统计数据表明，在可预见的未来，尽管女性政治科学家的数量在过去几十年中大幅增加，但在该学科中，女性仍将低于男性。2001年，妇女占所有全日制教师的24%（APSA，2002年），比1991年增加了6%，1991年为18%（Sarkozy和McGlen，1999年）。尽管自20世纪70年代初以来，女性在各个学术级别都取得了进步，但越来越多的证据表明，在过去5年中，女性助理教授的比例一直徘徊在35%左右。这是真实的令人担忧的原因，表明一个停滞的管道将对未来女性政治学教师的数量造成明显的限制。女性在政治学中继续处于少数地位有各种可能的原因，但关于这一点的研究还远没有确定，部分原因是关于女性在该学科中的进步的研究并不像其他社会科学那样是一个发达的研究领域。为了更好地了解与妇女在学术界取得成功有关的因素，政治学家可以从与社会学和经济学研究人员的信息交流中受益，对他们来说，妇女在学术界的进步是一个明确的研究调查主题。这项探索性研究小额赠款将于2004年初举办一个规划讲习班，以评估目前有关提高妇女在政治学方面的知识基础，并查明阻碍妇女在该学科人数增加的主要障碍。为了促进社会科学领域的交流，并从社会学家和经济学家获得的证据中受益，调查人员将邀请几位研究妇女在科学和社会科学领域发展的学者。此外，应邀与会者将包括指导大型团队研究项目、在该领域担任领导职务和/或对性别问题和提高妇女地位问题有积极兴趣的政治科学家。研讨会将为提交给NSF ADVANCE领导力计划的赠款提案奠定基础。研讨会有以下目标：（1）澄清各级学术级别的妇女在政治学方面的进步速度。(2)澄清妇女在政治学领域面临的主要晋升问题;例如，妇女晋升为正教授是否比获得终身职位更困难？(3)探索妇女的差异率的进步，由大学的声望和政治学的子领域的起源。(4)更广泛的社会价值：讲习班的目的是提高对妇女在学术政治学领域取得进展的认识，以便设计一个方案，改善该学科妇女的招聘和保留。这对政治学作为女性研究生学习领域的吸引力具有深远的影响。女研究生人数的增加，反过来又会增加从事各种非学术职业的妇女人数，包括选任政府职务、外交使团、国内和国际情报、投票和选举以及公共政策规划。因为女性教师最有可能教授涉及女性政治参与的历史和重要性的课程。

Women have been and continue to be a minority of full-time faculty within politicalscience, and current statistics suggest they will remain below parity with men in thediscipline for the foreseeable future, despite substantial gains in the number of womenpolitical scientists over the last several decades. Women constituted 24% of all full timefaculty in 2001 (APSA 2002) an increase of 6% over 1991 when they made up 18% (Sarkees and McGlen 1999). And while they have made gains at all academic ranks since the early 1970s there is growing evidence that the percentage of women assistant professors has stalled at roughly 35% over the last 5 years. This is real cause for concern, suggesting a stagnant pipeline that will place clear limits on the number of future women political science faculty.There are various possible reasons for women's continuing minority status withinpolitical science but research on this point is far from definitive, in part, becauseresearch on women's progress in the discipline is not as well developed an area ofresearch as in other social sciences. To better understand the factors linked towomen's success within academia, political scientists could benefit from aninformational exchange with researchers in sociology and economics for whom women'sadvancement in academia is an explicit topic of research investigation. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research is to to hold a planning workshop in early 2004 to evaluate the current knowledge base regarding women's advancement in political science, and to identify the major barriers to their numerical increase in the discipline. To foster exchange across social science fields and benefit from evidence obtained by sociologists and economists, the investigators will invite several scholars who have studied women's development in the sciences and social sciences. In addition, invited participants will include political scientists who direct large-scale team-based research projects, hold leadership positions in the field, and/or have an active interest in gender issues and theadvancement of women. The workshop will lay the foundation for a grant proposal to besubmitted to the NSF ADVANCE leadership program.The workshop has the following goals: (1) Clarify the rate of progress of women inpolitical science at all levels of academic rank. (2) Clarify the key advancement problemsconfronted by women in political science; for example, are women having greater difficultyin getting promoted to full professor than in gaining tenure? (3) Explore the origins ofwomen's differential rate of advancement by prestige of the university and bysubfield in political science. (4) Identity the key barriers to women's academic success at different transition points.Broader Social Value: The workshop is intended to improve knowledge of women's progress within academic political science in order to design a program that will improve the recruitment and retention of women in the discipline. This has far reaching implications for the attractiveness of political science as a field of graduate study for women. An increased number of women graduate students should, in turn, increase the pool of women for a wide variety of non-academic careers including elective government office, the diplomatic corps, domestic and international intelligence, polling and elections, and public policy planning, Moreover, an increased number of women political science faculty should increase women's interest in the political process very generally, in part, because womenfaculty are most likely to teach courses that touch on the history and importance ofwomen's political involvement.