Women and political science in New Zealand: The state of the discipline

Political Science

Volumn 65, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 63-83

  Curtin, Jennifer ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

discipline; political science; profession; status; women

Indexed keywords

EID: 84878884915     PISSN: 00323187     EISSN: 20410611     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0032318713484922     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. Marian Sawer, 'The Impact of Feminist Scholarship on Australian Political Science', Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol. 39, No. 3 (2004), pp. 553-566.
2. Irmina Matonyte, Marian Sawer and Mathieu St-Laurent, International Political Science Association Gender Monitoring Report 2011 (Montreal: University of Concordia, 2012).
3. American Political Science Association, Women's Advancement in Political Science (Washington, DC:APSA, 2005)
4. American Political Science Association, Taskforce on Political Science in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: APSA, 2011)
5. Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Joanna Everitt, Richard Johnston and David Rayside (Canadian Political Science Association, Diversity Task Force), 'Report and Analysis of the Questionnaire for Chairs of Departments of Political Science' (May 2010)
6. Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Joanna Everitt, Richard Johnston,Martin Papillon and David Rayside (Canadian Political Science Association Diversity Taskforce), 'Report and Analysis of the Canadian Political Science Association Member Survey' (May 2012)
7. Stephen Bates, Laura Jenkins and Zoe Pflaeger, 'Women in the Profession: The Composition of UK Political Science Departments by Sex', Politics, Vol. 32, No. 3 (2012), pp. 139-152
8. Mhairi Cowden, Kirsty McLaren, Alison Plumb and Marian Sawer, 'Women's Advancement in Australian Political Science', workshop report (Canberra: Australian National University, 2012).
9. Jane H. Bayes (ed.), Gender and Politics: The State of the Discipline (Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers, 2012)
10. Erin C. Cassese, Angela L. Bos and Lauren E. Duncan, 'Integrating Gender into the Political Science Core Curriculum', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 45, No. 2 (2012), pp. 238-243
11. Fiona Mackay, 'Gender and Political Representation in the UK: The State of the Discipline', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 6 (2004), pp. 99-120
12. Steve Smith, "'Unacceptable Conclusions" and the "Man" Question: Masculinity, Gender, and International Relations', in Marysia Zalewski and Jane Parpart (eds), The Man Question in International Relations (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997).
13. Cited in Cassese et al., 'Integrating Gender', p. 239.
14. As evidenced by textbooks at the time, such as Hyam Gold (ed.), New Zealand Politics in Perspective (Auckland: Longman Paul, 1985)
15. Richard Mulgan, Politics in New Zealand (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1984).
16. For example, in 2006 the Department of Political Studies at The University of Auckland had a series of discussions in staff meetings regarding name change.
17. See http://nzpsa.wordpress.com/womens-caucus/women-talking-politics/.
18. Marian Sawer, 'Women in the Political Science Profession', Supplement to Politics, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1980), pp. 1-4. Thanks to one anonymous reviewer for clarifying this point.
19. Juliet Lodge, 'New Zealand Women Academics: Some Observations on their Status, Aspirations, and Professional Advancement', Political Science, Vol. 28, No. 1 (1976), pp. 23-40.
20. Rae Nicholl and Margaret Cousins, 'Brief Encounter? Women and Political Science: The First Fifty Years', Political Science, Vol. 50, No. 1 (1998), p. 47.
21. All website surveys were undertaken by the author and her research assistant, Stacey Berquist. The numbers provided here may not account for all political scientists employed in interdisciplinary departments or programmes. We attempted to locate the latter by searching a variety of school websites and included academic staff whose research and teaching interests were political science or international relations.
22. Human Rights Commission (T̄e Kahui Tika Tangata), New Zealand Census on Women's Participation (Wellington, 2012), available at: www.hrc.co.nz/wp- content/uploads/2012/11/web-census.pdf, pp. 137-140.
23. Alison Plumb, 'The Present Status of Women in the Profession: A Gender Survey of Australian Political Science Departments', paper presented at the Advancement of Women in Australian Political Science Workshop, Australian National University, Canberra, 29 September 2011.
24. Cowden et al., 'Women's Advancement in Australian Political Science'.
25. Meredith Reid Sarkees and Nancy E. McGlen, 'Misdirected Backlash: The Evolving Nature of Academia and the Status of Women in Political Science', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1999), pp. 100-108.
26. Sarkees and McGlen, 'Misdirected Backlash'.
27. Stephen Kulis, Diane Sicotte and Shawn Collins, 'More than a Pipeline Problem: Labor Supply Constraints and Gender Stratification across Academic Science Disciplines', Research in Higher Education, Vol. 43, No. 6 (2002), pp. 657-691
28. also Cowden et al., 'Women's Advancement in Australian Political Science'.
29. My thanks to Priya Kurian for assistance with obtaining University of Waikato figures. The author and Stacey Berquist surveyed websites for the remainder
30. Jessica Lober Newsome, 'The Chemistry PhD: The Impact on Women's Retention', report prepared for the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology and the Royal Society of Chemistry (2012).
31. Johanna Kantola, "'Why Do All the Women Disappear?" Gendering Processes in a Political Science Department', Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2008), pp. 202-226
32. see also Parveen Akhtar, Paul Fawcett, Tim Legrand, David Marsh and Chloe Taylor 'Women in the Political Science Profession', European Political Science, Vol. 4, No. 3 (2005), pp. 242-255.
33. Diane Lamoureux, Linda Trimble and Miriam Koene, 'Report on the Status of Women in the Discipline', Canadian Political Science Association Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1997), pp. 76-83.
34. American Political Science Association, Women's Advancement.
35. Claire Burton, Linda Cooke and Susan Wilson, Gender Equity in Australian University Staffing (Canberra: Evaluations and Investigations Program, Higher Education Division, Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, 1997).
36. Matonyte et al., International Political Science Association Gender Monitoring Report
37. Vivien Schuck, 'Women in Political Science: Some Preliminary Observations', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 2, No. 4 (1969), pp. 642-653.
38. American Political Science Association, Women's Advancement.
39. In the United States, female academics were more likely than their male counterparts to have spouses who worked full-time outside the home, and were less likely than their male counterparts to have children. See Maresi Nerad, cited in American Political Science Association, Women's Advancement, p. 5.
40. Monroe and Chiu, 'Gender Equality in the Academy'
41. American Political Science Association, Women's Advancement
42. There is evidence to suggest the potential lack of anonymity within the institution has caused anxiety amongst academic staff. For an assessment of the PBRF exercise generally, see Leon Bakker, Jonathan Boston, Lesley Campbell and Roger Smyth, Evaluating the Performance-Based Research Fund: Framing the Debate (Wellington: Institute of Policy Studies, VUW, 2006).
43. Janet Webster, 'Women Academics: Tensions between the Workplace and the Personal and Professional Selves', Master of Education thesis, Massey University, 2010.
44. Similar trends were revealed in a gender audit of the Australian Journal of Political Science
45. See Jennifer Curtin, Louise Chappell and Lisa Hill, 'Gender Audit of the Australian Journal of Political Science, 1979-1998: A Preliminary Report', in Proceedings of the 1999 Conference of the Australasian Political Studies Association, University of Sydney, September 1999.
46. Heather K. Evans and A. Moulder, 'Reflecting on a Decade of Women's Publications in Four Top Political Science Journals', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 44, No. 4 (2011), pp. 793-798.
47. Pat Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', Political Science, Vol. 50, No. 4 (1998), p. 5.
48. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', pp. 15-16. The journal is not the official journal of the NZPSA but was established by students of VUW and has always been permanently housed with the Political Science and International Relations Programme there. This caused some friction within the NZ political science community in the 1970s, and was resolved in part by the establishment of an editorial board that drew its membership from beyond VUW. However, because the journal is not tied formally to the NZPSA, the position of editor is only open to VUW academic staff
49. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', pp. 26-30). This means that other New Zealand scholars aspiring to the role of editor must look overseas. It also means continuing to have a woman editor is dependent on the representation of senior women political scientists at VUW.
50. Although Margaret Clark was appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board in 1977.
51. This perception was not helped when women were absent as authors in special issues celebrating the jubilees of two prominent New Zealand political science departments: Vol. 40, No. 1 (1988) and Vol. 41, No. 2 (1989).
52. The June 2013 issue of Political Science is dedicated to the subject of women and politics and includes five articles authored by women.
53. As do later editors. See Political Science, Vol. 61, No. 3 (2009), p. 4
54. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', pp. 30-31.
55. Although most were graduate students from VUW and the University of Canterbury.
56. Nicholl and Cousins, 'Brief Encounter?', p. 47.
57. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', p. 16.
58. Mary Stegmaier, Barbara Palmer and Laura van Assendelft, 'Getting on the Board: The Presence of Women in Political Science Journal Editorial Positions', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 44, No. 4 (2011), pp. 798-804.
59. Moloney argues that the functions of the first Editorial Advisory Board of Political Science were 'honorific, practical and symbolic'. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', p. 26.
60. Political Science has had several women book review editors in recent decades including Helena Catt, Janine Hayward and (currently) Anita Lacey. Editors John Morrow and Reggie Mascarenhas were the first to solicit book review editors from outside the Wellington Department. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', pp. 31-33.
61. These are Research Committee 19: Gender Politics and Policy; Research Committee 52: Gender, Globalisation and Democracy; and Research Committee 7: Women, Politics and Development Nations (see www.ipsa.org).
62. Smith, 'Unacceptable Conclusions'
63. Sarkees and McGlen, 'Misdirected Backlash'.
64. Moloney, 'Political Science in Retrospect', p. 36.
65. Alexander Tan, Jessica Buck and Erik Schrader, 'Portraits of New Zealand Political Science, 1980-2008: A Picture is Worth Eighty Words', Political Science, Vol. 61, No. 1 (2009), pp. 81-83.
66. Arthur H. Miller, Charles Tien and Andrew A. Peebler, 'The American Political Science Review Hall of Fame: Assessments and Implications for an Evolving Discipline', PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 29, No. 1 (1996), pp. 73-83.
67. And there is evidence to suggest that female scholars are cited by their colleagues at rates far lower than their representation in the field. See American Political Science Association, Taskforce on Political Science in the 21st Century, pp. 12-17.
68. Sawer, 'Impact of Feminist Scholarship'.
69. Cassese et al., 'Integrating Gender'.
70. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in gender/feminist politics are listed on four political science programme websites, but it is not clear that all are currently offered.
71. Gold, New Zealand Politics in Perspective (3rd edn 1992) and Mulgan, Politics in New Zealand (1994 edn), cited in Janice Dudley and Sonia Palmieri, "'Can Ladies Work Here Too Nanna?" Gender and Politics in Australasian Textbooks', available at: http://auspsa. anu.edu.au/about/textbook-survey.pdf.
72. Brian Roper, 'Extended Review: The Transition of New Zealand Government and Politics', Political Science, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2011), pp. 244-246.
73. There are of course a range of other edited volumes on New Zealand politics that are used by scholars in their teaching, including two series of election books published by Auckland University Press and Victoria University of Wellington Press which feature chapters by female authors. However, the purpose of this section is to focus on the key introductory textbooks to which students are first exposed.
74. Cassese et al., 'Integrating Gender'.
75. See http://wipsworkshop.weebly.com/. A final report of the workshop's findings will be produced later in 2013