Angela L. Bos

Stepping around the Brick Wall: Overcoming Student Obstacles in Methods Courses.

Many political science departments offer, and increasing numbers of them require, undergraduate research methods courses. At the same time, studies cite high levels of student anxiety about such courses. Utilizing survey data from both students who take and faculty who teach methods, we conduct an analysis that compares the barriers students and faculty independently perceive. Next, we share results from our own exploratory assessment technique, which evaluates our success in increasing student confidence with regard to conducting research. Finally, we present specific exercises and assignments which can serve as solutions to student barriers. We argue that conscious reflection as to where students lack confidence and assessment of our efforts allows instructors to approach teaching methods more effectively.

Integrating Gender into the Political Science Core Curriculum

The New Research on Gender in Political Psychology Conference brought together new and experienced teachers with interests in gender politics. The conference session “Teaching Gender throughout the Curriculum” generated a great deal of discussion concerning the pedagogical practice of gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming—the integration of gendered content into courses required for a major—was recognized as one of 11 recommendations for reforming the undergraduate political science curriculum in the 1991 APSA report “Liberal Learning an The Political Science Major: A Report to the Profession” (popularly referred to as the Wahlke Report). Little information is available on the prevalence of gender courses in the undergraduate curriculum, but the data that does exist suggest such courses are uncommon (Brandes et al. 2001). We found virtually no data on the practice of gender mainstreaming in political science and little data in the way of assessing the impact of gendered content when students are exposed to it. This absence of data suggests gender mainstreaming has not emerged as a serious priority for curricular reform.

Whose American Government? A Quantitative Analysis of Gender and Authorship in American Politics Texts

American government textbooks signal to students the kinds of topics that are important and, by omission, the kinds of topics that are not important to the discipline of political science. This article examines portrayals of women in introductory American politics textbooks through a quantitative content analysis of 22 widely used texts. We find that textbook coverage of women is scarce, tends to disregard important sources of diversity among women, reinforces traditional gender roles, and gives scant attention to women as political actors. Typical presentations of women thus reinforce womens status as political outsiders, mirroring their marginalization in American political life. We argue this content depresses interest in the academic study of political science and engagement with American political life more generally. However, we find that textbooks with one or more female author have significantly more gender-related content. Female political scientists better integrate gender into their textbooks and, thus, may be more likely to engage female students, who are underrepresented in the political science major.

New Research on Gender in Political Psychology

This symposium consists of three papers written after a small mentoring conference, New Research on Gender in Political Psychology , which was held in New Brunswick, New Jersey, March 4–5, 2011. As junior scholars, we received a grant from the National Science Foundation (#SES-1014854) to organize a conference for the purposes of mentoring pretenure faculty and promoting scholarship on gender in political psychology. Each of the three articles in this symposium focuses on a different aspect of the conference.

The Interplay of Candidate Party and Gender in Evaluations of Political Candidates

ABSTRACT In this article, we study the interaction between candidate gender and party on voter evaluations. Theories from psychology are the basis for our hypotheses about how candidate identities such as party and gender combine: Party might dominate certain evaluations, gender might dominate others, or gender and party might work in either an additive or interactive way to influence evaluations. Our evidence suggests that both party and gender separately influence candidate evaluations, even when accounting for the other. We discuss implications of these findings for the evaluation of female candidates.

Building a Gender and Methodology Curriculum: Integrated Skills, Exercises, and Practices

In this article, we develop an argument for better integrating the political science curricula on methodology with gender politics. We demonstrate how these two areas are presently distinct and nonoverlapping with an analysis of commonly used methodology and women and politics textbooks. We examine the implications of these results for female students’ engagement with political methodology—an area in which women are persistently underrepresented—by drawing on research from STEM educators. Stereotype threat (Steele 1997; Steele and Aronson 1995) provides a framework for thinking about the myriad of ways the curriculum influences learning outcomes for female students and highlights the utility of greater crossover between the two subject areas. To facilitate better integration of methodology and gender politics, we identify opportunities for instructors to incorporate methods into courses on gender and gender into courses on methods. We also develop a number of different in-class activities and resources to help faculty to bridge the gap between gender and methodology.

The unintended effects of political party affirmative action policies on female candidates’ nomination chances

Some state political party organizations that hold nominating conventions implement affirmative action (AA) policies to encourage the nomination of women and minority candidates. This paper assesses whether these policies help or hinder female candidates seeking statewide office. On the one hand, these policies could benefit female candidates since they demonstrate an organizations commitment to diversity. On the other hand, diversity and AA policies may have negative, unintended consequences for female candidates such as promoting gender stereotype activation or creating a stigma of incompetence for female candidates. I examine whether and how delegates’ awareness of these policies shapes candidate evaluations, gender stereotypes, and nominee choice. I test this by analyzing unique survey data from Democratic state nominating convention delegates who evaluate candidates in statewide nominations in four states. The results suggest that while evaluations of the female candidate are not downgraded, focus on AA leads Democratic delegates to inflate their views of her male opponent. Furthermore, when delegates perceive that their party focuses on AA, they are less likely to choose the female candidate, in part because this perceived focus highlights that female candidates might lack masculine strengths. The resulting implications for female candidates and political party organizations are discussed.

Family-friendly academic conferences: a missing link to fix the “leaky pipeline”?

ABSTRACT Traveling to academic conferences to present research and network is essential for scholars to achieve success in the academy. Scholars with family obligations face barriers to participating in conferences, partly because most regional and national conferences are not organized to be family-friendly. While balancing travel to academic conferences with family responsibilities is a challenge faced by all academics, this burden can be especially high for women. As such, improving the family-friendly features of conferences could be one way to patch the “leaky pipeline” of young female scholars leaving the academy, and facilitate the movement of female faculty through the ranks from Assistant to Associate to Full Professor. We identify these barriers to conference attendance and how they might contribute to the leaky pipeline and share innovations from family-friendly small conferences that minimize these burdens. We also review what the major political science association conferences are doing to be family-friendly, and offer details about further recommended changes. Finally, we highlight one exemplary institutional policy and examples from other disciplines. Our conclusion is that there are many simple and affordable ways to make political science conferences more family-friendly and that these changes are necessary to creating an inclusive discipline.

The Effects of HDTV on Perceptions of Obama and McCain in a 2008 Presidential Debate

As high-definition television (HDTV) becomes more prevalent, it may affect how people perceive politicians. This study experimentally tests the effects of HD on peoples perceptions of John McCain and Barack Obama during their second presidential debate, hypothesizing that the HD format will hurt McCain. Consistent with the authors’ expectations, it was found that the HD format negatively influenced global evaluations toward McCain. In addition, HDTV viewers free-listed more negative responses to McCain, including several pertaining to his age. This report discusses why these findings were observed, and implications for candidate strategy and the study of media effects are discussed.