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

在政治科学领域，女性一直是并且将继续是全职教师中的少数，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里有了实质性的增长，但在该学科中，女性仍将低于男性。2001年，女性在所有全职教师中占24%(2002年的APSA)，比1991年的18%增加了6% （Sarkees和McGlen， 1999年）。尽管自20世纪70年代初以来，她们在所有学术级别上都取得了进步，但越来越多的证据表明，在过去5年里，女性助理教授的比例停滞在35%左右。这才是真正令人担忧的原因，因为这表明，招生渠道的停滞不前，将对未来女性政治学教师的数量造成明确限制。妇女在政治科学中持续处于少数地位的可能原因有很多，但关于这一点的研究远没有定论，部分原因是关于妇女在这一学科中的进步的用户研究并不像在其他社会科学领域那样发达。为了更好地理解与女性在学术界取得成功相关的因素，政治科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，对这些研究人员来说，女性在学术界的进步是一个明确的研究调查主题。这项小额探索性研究补助金将于2004年初举办一个规划研讨会，以评估目前有关妇女在政治科学方面取得进展的知识基础，并查明阻碍妇女在该学科中人数增加的主要障碍。为了促进社会科学领域之间的交流，并从社会学家和经济学家获得的证据中获益，调查人员将邀请几位在科学和社会科学领域研究过妇女发展的学者。此外，受邀的参与者将包括指导大型团队研究项目的政治科学家，在该领域担任领导职务，和/或对性别问题和提高妇女地位有积极兴趣。研讨会将为提交给NSF ADVANCE领导计划的拨款提案奠定基础。研讨会有以下目标：(1)澄清妇女在各级学术级别的政治科学方面的进步速度。(2)明确女性在政治科学领域面临的主要发展问题；例如，女性晋升为正教授是否比获得终身教职更困难？(3)通过大学的声望和政治科学的子领域来探讨女性晋升率差异的根源。(4)识别不同过渡阶段女性学业成功的主要障碍。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的进步的认识，以便设计一个方案，改善该学科对妇女的招聘和保留。这对政治学作为研究生学习领域对女性的吸引力有着深远的影响。反过来，女性研究生人数的增加会增加女性从事各种非学术职业的人数，包括民选政府办公室、外交使团、国内和国际情报、民意调查和选举以及公共政策规划。此外，女性政治科学教师人数的增加会在一定程度上提高女性对政治进程的兴趣。因为女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.