Building a Support Structure

My first and most important piece of advice is to be compassionate with others and with yourself. This is a rewarding job but not always an easy one. The ability to evaluate work critically is integral to our profession. However, it often is tempting to focus that critical eye too much on ourselves.

Academia can be isolating, and there is a great deal of readily available advice on building friendships and finding support structures in your personal life to aid with loneliness. However, it also is important to build a support structure within the discipline. Strong networks contribute to professional success. They lead to invitations to give talks, contribute to special issues, and other related opportunities. Perhaps more important, having friends in the discipline makes this job much more fun.

Networks matter and do not appear out of thin air. You have to build and tend to them. Ideally, you should build your networks vertically (with senior scholars) and horizontally (with peers). Social media, particularly Twitter, is a good way to start building networks. You also should try to meet one new person at every conference. Reach out to scholars (both men and women) whom you admire for their particular strengths and request a meeting in which you can ask specific questions. Senior colleagues often are happy to meet with you, but be sure to respect their time. Keep the first meeting brief and have a clear agenda. Furthermore, whereas more experienced scholars are important for your professional advancement, remember that in difficult times, support from peers may be at least as valuable as support from senior allies.

As you build your network, keep an eye out for mentors. Mentorship matters in all career stages, and you should seek advocates both within and outside of your department. You do not have to rely on a single mentor; instead, have several who help you with different parts of the job.

Just as it is important to seek out mentorship in all career stages, it also is important to provide support to others. You are never too young to be a mentor and, in all career stages, you should reach out to more junior women. In your research, read and cite women’s work. In the classroom, teach the work of women scholars. Encourage others (men and women) to read, cite, and teach women. More generally, advocate for women in the academy, especially women from less privileged backgrounds or in less privileged positions. It is especially important to be an ally to women of color, who face a unique set of challenges related to race (and the intersection of race and gender).

Finally, mentoring others is not simply an obligation. Instead, it is an opportunity to make friends with other women in political science (and in academia more generally). Helping others brings intrinsic joy. My job—and my life—have been enriched by my female friends in political science.

Research

A key reason to build a support structure is to position yourself to have the skills, resources, and confidence necessary to publish research that makes you proud. If possible, give yourself time to work on ambitious projects and submit to top journals. Women in political science are less likely to submit to the “Top 3” outlets (Djupe, Smith, and Sokhey Reference Djupe, Smith and Sokhey2019; Koenig et al. Reference Koenig, Benoit, Bräuninger, Carey, Jenco, Lauderdale and Rohlfing2018). Of course, there are other venues for important and ambitious work, but the gender gap in submissions suggests systemic issues affecting women in the discipline. There are at least two factors that likely contribute to this gap: first, women’s confidence in their work; and, second, women’s greater time constraints.

The gender and politics literature finds that even highly qualified women are sometimes less confident in their abilities than men (Lawless and Fox Reference Lawless and Fox2005; Shames et al. Reference Shames, Bernhard, Holman and Teele2020), and I believe that this holds among political scientists as well. I do not think that this is irrational because women may have to be especially talented to be viewed as “brilliant” and may face higher costs for producing sloppy and ill-conceived work. Of course, you should not submit premature or minor projects to the American Political Science Review. However, you should develop the intellectual confidence to pursue ambitious projects and to think of yourself as a scholar who can publish in top outlets. Most important, you must become self-assured enough to ask for comments on your work at many points along the way. Share early drafts and obtain feedback from many people (including, and especially, peers). You do not need to take all of the advice given; however, all of the articles that I have published in highly competitive journals have been vetted by smart and sympathetic colleagues.

Once you have circulated a draft, submit it for publication. When it is rejected—which is almost inevitable—revise based on reviewer comments and resubmit as soon as possible. Finally, when you have a reasonable paper draft, watch for awards for which you are a plausible candidate (e.g., best paper or best dissertation) and make sure you are nominated. Not only is there a chance that you will win but simply being nominated also provides free publicity for your work among award-committee members.

Beyond a confidence gap, the reality is that women academics often have less time to write than men. Women are asked to do more service than men (Guarino and Borden Reference Guarino and Borden2017; Teele Reference Teele, Elman, Gerring and Mahoney2020), and female academics do more second-shift domestic labor than their male counterparts (Mason, Wolfinger, and Goulden Reference Mason, Wolfinger and Goulden2014; Teele Reference Teele, Elman, Gerring and Mahoney2020). On any given day, it is easy to focus your time and energy on more pressing demands—such as teaching and service—at the expense of research. As often as you can, “pay yourself first.” That is, make time every day to invest in the professional activities that will pay the greatest long-term dividends. For many academics, this is finding time to write every day (even if for only 25 minutes). Before you go to bed each work night, decide exactly what you will work on the next day that lets you pay yourself.

Teaching and Service

Women have less time for research in part because they are dedicating more time to teaching than men. This gap, moreover, cannot be fully explained by women’s preferences or educational and institutional attributes (Winslow Reference Winslow2010). Rather, it likely reflects the greater expectations placed on women faculty by both departments and students. Students, for example, request more special favors and friendship behaviors from female professors than from men (El-Alayli, Hansen-Brown, and Ceynar Reference El-Alayli, Hansen-Brown and Ceynar2018).

Unfortunately, this extra time committed is not always rewarded. Indeed, there is evidence of gender bias in course evaluations (Boring Reference Boring2017; Holman, Key, and Kreitzer Reference Holman, Key and Kreitzer2019; MacNell, Driscoll, and Hunt Reference MacNell, Driscoll and Hunt2015). Remember, especially when you first start teaching, that you are an expert and introduce yourself as such. Explain that you are a PhD (or in a PhD program) and what that means. Describe your area of expertise to your students. Regarding evaluations, remember that bias exists. It is important that you make this bias known to your department and seek out allies who will make this point for you when it comes to annual evaluations and promotion.

With respect to service, I have been in the privileged position of working at institutions that required relatively little from junior professors. Many scholars have never enjoyed these privileges, and even professors at research-intensive universities often face high service burdens after promotion to associate professor. This is especially true for women because there are fewer of us to sit on department and university committees. Now that I have tenure, I accept that I am in a place in my career where service is rightly expected. However, it is important to make sure that your service work also works for you.

To make service more useful and enjoyable, you should proactively seek out meaningful service opportunities rather than sporadically saying yes to requests that cross your desk. With each new exciting opportunity, remind yourself that every “yes” is a “no” to something else.

To gauge whether your teaching and service load is reasonable, consider a male “benchmark.” Find a male colleague who is at the same career stage and compare your service and teaching obligations—as well as your compensation and support—to ensure that you are not being unfairly burdened. Ideally, if this is a colleague you trust, you can enlist him as an ally. If you are unsure whether requests, situations, or problems are gendered, run them by a trusted male colleague and ask “Is this happening to you?” to ascertain if requests are “normal.” More generally, if you are worried about saying no to a service request, negotiating with your chair, or giving an interview, ask yourself: “What would my favorite male colleagues do?”

Finding Your Own Way

Some of this advice may not be useful for you. Well-intentioned scholars and friends, who truly want the best for you, sometimes give unhelpful and contradictory suggestions. Use the strategies that work for you and feel no shame about disregarding the rest.