"Far from Ideal:" The Gender Politics of Political Science Author(s): Sue Tolleson-Rinehart and Susan J. Carroll Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 100, No. 4, Thematic Issue on the Evolution of Political Science, in Recognition of the Centennial of the Review (Nov., 2006), pp. 507-513 Published by: American Political Science Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27644377 Accessed: 12/02/2010 20:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. 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CARROLL Rutgers University Political science has mirrored the political culture even as it has explained it, and at critical times the gendering of political science has left it unprepared to explain notable changes in political we as a across life. Here, examine political science gendered institution three critical time periods: the founding era of the discipline, the 1970s and 1980s, and the present. For each period, we assess the presence, position, and experiences of women in the profession; the norms of gender within the discipline; and the science women as way political deals with and gender subject matter. In general, the position women of in the discipline has improved dramatically over the course of the discipline's first century, and research has more gender-related become institutionalized. Nevertheless, political science has not yet a as an developed full appreciation of gender analytical construct. Political science has mirrored the political culture has experienced a dynamic interplay between changes even as it has explained it.Nowhere is the power inside and outside the discipline. of the culture's influence on what and how the Earlier scholarship analyzing the relationship be knows more discipline evident than in the gender poli tween gender and politics was the foundation for the tics of science. of political By "gender politics political work of those who have begun to articulate theories we mean the which the of science," processes through gendered institutions and a gendered state (Acker has itself been discipline shaped by prevailing beliefs 1992; Kenney 1996; Duerst-Lahti 2002, 2006; McBride about the intersection of con biological sex, socially Stetson 2002), and various political scientists have im structed and life. At critical the or gender, political times, plicitly explicitly employed this perspective to an of science has left it to gendering political unprepared alyze institutions including legislatures, the executive explain notable in life. changes political branch, campaigns, and social and foreign policy (e.g., back to the classical texts of Western Dating political Duerst-Lahti, 2002,2006; Josephson 1997; Leatherman those who have written about have philosophy, politics 2005; Thomas 2005). Although the framework of gen assumed a fundamental division between public and dered institutions has not been used before to look life. Political science has located itsmost central at private political science itself, it provides an excellent lens concepts, power and the state, in the which to particularly public, through analyze gender in the discipline. and like has means society generally, aligned what it to Sociologist Joan Acker theorized that institutions be a man or woman with and Men have are public private. gendered because gender is in the been as "present viewed public, and thus actors; women and political, processes, practices, images ideologies, and distri have not. Given these and the of generally assumptions butions power in [them]" (1992, 567). Institutions fact that most of its practitioners have been it is take on male, inevitably the characteristics and preferences not that the itself would be of surprising discipline gen their founders and of powerful external actors dered. As a scientists would be result, political unlikely (Duerst-Lahti 2006); in this case, the characteristics and to see questions of until the numbers of women are gender preferences those of masculinity. All actors within in the discipline increased and events external to the an institution have gender; members' experiences discipline caused a reexamination of the within the assumption institution vary according to gender; and that women are not in most political.1 Appreciating changes important, gendered institutions "produce, the gender politics of science is to a and political necessary reproduce, subvert gender," according to Sally of the evo comprehensive understanding discipline's Kenney (1996, 456-57). In this essay we examine lution over its first The of women century. position in political science as a gendered institution across three the profession is an important part of that critical time the evolution, periods: founding era of the discipline, but our view of the of the gender politics discipline the 1970s and 1980s, and the present. For each is period, broader, requiring an analysis of science as we assess the political presence, position, and experiences of a gendered institution, albeit one that over the women in the years profession; the norms of gender within the discipline; and the way political science has dealt Sue with women and as matter. Tolleson-Rinehart isAdjunct Professor of Political Science, Ad gender subject ministrator, UNC Center for Education and Research on Thera of North at peutics, University Carolina Chapel Hill, Department of CB # 120 Pediatrics, 7220, Mason Farm Road, Chapel Hill, NC THE FOUNDING ERA: THE TURN 27599-7220 ([email protected]). Susan J. Carroll is OF THE CENTURY Professor of Political Science, Senior Scholar, Center for the American Woman and Politics, Rutgers University, Political science became institutionalized as a 191 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8557 discipline (scarroll@ the a rci.rutgers.edu). during Progressive Era, period when women were 1 For the of as active in social reform movements development gender an analytical construct, as well as very ranging from its uses in the see varying discipline, Carroll and Zerilli 1993, Burns settlement houses to temperance to child labor reform. 2002, and Hawkesworth 2005. women Although did not achieve national suffrage in 507 The Gender Politics of Political Science November 2006 FIGURE 1. Former Presidents of the Women's Caucus for Political Science gather in Atlanta to celebrate the Caucus' thirtieth anniversary. Back row (L-R): Barbara Nelson, Mary Hawkesworth, Susan Tolchin, Karen O'Connor, Molly Shanley, Arlene Saxonhouse, Naomi Lynn, Jennifer Hochschild, and Marie B. Rosenberg. Front row (L-R): Georgia Duerst- Lahti, Carol Nackenoff, Toni-Michelle Travis, M. Margaret Conway, Rita Mae Kelly, Jane Mansbridge, and Marianne Githens Photo courtesy of APS A. the United States (despite local exceptions) until the science in its formative years, illustrate the barriers Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution that capable women faced. Breckinridge earned her in 1920, the suffrage movement itself had been active doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1901, but, since 1848 and was very visible by the time the Ameri "Although I was given the Ph.D. degree magna cum can Political Science Association was founded in 1903 laude,... no position in political science or in Eco and the American Political Science Review published nomics was offered me. The men... went off to po its first issue in 1906. sitions in College and University faculties" (quoted in The magnitude of women's activism outside the Fitzpatrick 1990, 82). Instead, she worked as an assis academy stood in stark contrast to the roles and views tant to the dean of women and as the assistant head of women within the newly forming discipline. Not only of a women's dormitory. When Chicago opened a law were women absent from the list of those commonly school in 1902, Breckinridge enrolled in its inaugu considered as the founders of political science, but also ral class and became its first woman J.D. Her former women were nearly absent from the discipline. Only employer, the dean of women, was instrumental in se 10 women received Ph.D.'s in political science between curing an instructorship at Chicago for her after she 1890 and 1919, an estimated 5.5% of all doctorates