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women and diversity in latin american political science

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Abstract

Research about political science in Latin America shows good progress on issues such as the extension of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, the quality of academic production and the social recognition of the profession. Still, the status of women and diversity in the field has been scarcely contemplated. This fact is striking considering that Latin America is characterised by great inequalities, and scientific communities are not isolated from prevailing social prejudices. The article provides a first approach to the question of the status of women and diversity in the discipline in Latin America, examining women’s presence in professional associations, universities and national research systems. Journals and congresses are also examined in order to assess the participation of women as authors and panellists, as well as the extent to which diversity and gender-related issues are addressed in academic production. The findings point to the existence of a ‘critical mass’ of women in the field, although they are outnumbered by their male counterparts. This feature makes the profession in Latin America more similar to political science communities elsewhere and less like other social sciences in the region, which are feminised disciplines.

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Figure 1

Note: Data include UBA, UdelaR, UC, PUCC, UDP and UNC. I classified positions like “assistant” as “Grade 1”, and at the other end of the scale “Grade 3” covers teachers in the highest posts. To include the UdelaR, which has 5 categories, in the comparison, grades 1 and 2 were grouped together, as were grade 3 and 4.

Figure 2

Source: author’s own elaboration based on data from institutional websites.

Figure 3

Source: author’s own elaboration based on data from institutional websites.

Figure 4

Source: author’s own elaboration based on data from ALACIP.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Guillermo Fuentes, Mariana Mancebo, Verónica Pérez, Belén Villegas and EPS’s anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Mariana also gave me assistance with the systematisation of data for some aspects of this paper. Carlos Adrianzén, Daniel Buquet, Nelson Cardozo, Facundo Cruz, Rocío Duarte Recalde, Lorena Granja, Mariana Llanos, Rafael Madeira, María Ester Mancebo, Melina Mörschbächer and Daniela Vairo kindly collaborated with information about their countries or institutions. Richard Manning helped me translate the article into English in the first version. Niki Johnson and Rocío Duarte Recalde were of invaluable help in the final proofreading of the paper.

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Correspondence to cecilia rocha carpiuc.

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rocha carpiuc, c. women and diversity in latin american political science. Eur Polit Sci 15, 457–475 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-016-0077-4

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