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Can We Change How Political Science Thinks? “Gender Mainstreaming” in a Resistant Discipline

Presidential Address delivered to the Canadian Political Science Association, Ottawa, June 2, 2015

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2016

Jill Vickers
Jill Vickers*
Affiliation:
Carleton University
*
Distinguished Research Professor and Emeritus Chancellor's Professor in Political Science, Carleton University, 125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa ON, K1S 5B6, email: jill.vickers@sympatico.ca
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Abstract

This paper argues that, despite significant increases in the number of women professors and the growth of feminist political science, transformative change hasn't occurred in how conventional political scientists think about politics. “Transformative change” requires the successful mainstreaming of gender-focused knowledge and the use of “gender” as a category of analysis in studies of politics. The article first explores the insights of leading feminist political scientists in the five Anglo-American democracies, about why gender mainstreaming has not succeeded to date. It establishes the extent of the failure and explores its causes, including the discipline's fragmented structure, polarized culture and a number of theoretical and methodological incompatibilities between mainstream and feminist political science. Finally, several promising strategies for achieving transformative change are explored.

Résumé

Cet article fait valoir que, malgré la nette augmentation du nombre de professeures et l'essor de la science politique féministe, aucun changement en profondeur ne s'est produit. Il faudrait pour cela l'intégration probante des connaissances axées sur le genre et l'utilisation du « genre » comme catégorie d'analyse dans les recherches menées en politique. Ce travail-ci porte d'abord sur les observations de cinq politologues féministes de premier plan dans cinq démocraties anglo-américaines sur les raisons de l’échec de l'intégration de la dimension du genre jusqu'ici. L'article établit l’étendue de l’échec et explore ses causes, y compris la structure fragmentée de la discipline, la polarisation de la culture et plusieurs incompatibilités d'ordre théorique et méthodologique entre la science politique courante et la science politique féministe. L'article se conclut par une analyse de plusieurs stratégies susceptibles d'apporter un changement en profondeur.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 747 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2016 

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