Women Also Know Stuff: Meta-Level Mentoring to Battle Gender Bias in Political Science
by Emily Beaulieu, University of Kentucky, Amber E. Boydstun, University of California, Davis, Nadia E. Brown, Purdue University, Kim Yi Dionne, Smith College, Andra Gillespie, Emory University, Samara Klar, University of Arizona, Yanna Krupnikov, Stony Brook University, Melissa R. Michelson, Menlo College, Kathleen Searles, Louisiana University, Christina Wolbrecht, University of Notre Dame
We are political scientists. We are women. We know stuff. And we are deeply concerned about the implicit bias in our profession that minimizes and marginalizes the voices of women. In February 2016, our witnessing of and experience with this implicit bias against women political scientists reached a tipping point. We launched a crowdsourced website, WomenAlsoKnowStuff.com, to highlight the diversity of expertise among women in the profession, and a companion Twitter handle, @womenalsoknow. The website has been viewed more than 80,000 times by more than 15,000 unique visitors; our Twitter account has more than 10,000 followers and has made nearly fifty million impressions. Working on this project has been both rewarding and frustrating. Coming together as a group of strong, knowledgeable women to share our experiences of implicit bias, outright sexism, and bean-counting bureaucrats has helped to relieve the stress of those challenges. This is yet another aim of the initiative: to bring women in the profession together in solidarity and strength. We are changing the profession into one where we want to be and feel like we belong: one that is inclusive and is committed to diversity. Remember, women also know stuff. You should ask them about it.
PS: Political Science and Politics / Volume 50, Issue 3 / July 2017, pp. 779-783