PSA EXEC Committee Report on Equality and Diversity, Sub to Membership Committee

PSA EXEC Committee Report on Equality and Diversity, sub to Membership Committee

Working group convened 16/12/14

Attendees: Heather Savigny (Chair, PSA Exec, Bournemouth University); Anil Awesti (Chair PSA Diversity Working Group, Warwick University); Emma Foster (Birmingham University); Shardia Briscoe-Palmer (PGR, Birmingham University); Jonathan Dean (Leeds University)

The aim of this meeting was to discuss:

How we can improve and enhance membership, outreach and the profession in relation to E&D

As such we explored: where the PSA is to date with E&D issues;

an overview of some of the challenges;

and to make some recommendations for moving forward

Rationale

If we want to be more representative of the diverse contemporary society that we live in, and expand the recruitment pool of students to the discipline, beyond the ‘traditional’ perceptions of what political science is, this report begins to outline just some of the ways in which we may seek to make the profession more progressive and reflective of the society within which it is located.

Academic research tells us that the public are disaffected with mainstream/formal politics because of the disconnect between politicians and the public. With the public seeing politicians as a minority, reflecting minority interests, and ‘not like me’ (cf. Stoker & Hay). If we want to avoid the same disaffection with the discipline and the profession we argue that some crucial reform is needed.

This paper is a ‘work in progress’ rather than a complete project. There is not a ‘one fix’ solution to this. Rather we argue a combination of factors work together to produce a cumulative effect.

The issues raised are complex and deeply embedded and so we argue we need to continue to think constructively beyond the suggestions here to make political science more ‘relevant’ not only to policy makers (cf. Stoker) but to future students and to current academics within the profession, so that the disaffection that characterises mainstream politics, does not characterise our profession. As Wyn Grant notes ‘a number of outstanding challenges remain in relation to the role of women in British political science’ (Grant, 2010: 150).The Pathways to Politics Report also reminds us ‘Diversity of Representation is important for reasons of justice, effectiveness and legitimacy’ (Durose et al, 2013: v).

However, we argue that the PSA has the opportunity to expand membership and improve the position of existing and prospective previously structurally disadvantaged groups (such as those located around gender/race/ethnicity/class/disability) and the discipline, the student body and profession more widely. Not only will this be beneficial to the profession, but can also mark the PSA out as a ‘trailblazer’ and exemplar of good practice.

Where is the PSA to date with E & D issues?

Anil reported the aims of the Diversity working group, established by James Chiriyankandath in 2010/11. There were 2 focal points race and gender, both within PSA and in Political studies generally. The group also felt that disability was an area that needed inclusion, however, there are no data available to our knowledge which addresses this issue. (PSA could be trail blazer in addressing this too)

1. Applications and the profession by gender and BAME

The profession currently has ‘leakage’ points in relation to BAME and women more widely. These can be encapsulated in the following statistics:

Applications to Study Political Science by Gender

Acceptances to Study Political Science by Gender

(source Briggs & Harrison, 2015, forthcoming, European Political Science)

At undergraduate level the figures are healthy. Women are catching up with men in application terms although interestingly, they are doing less well in acceptance terms.

Whilst nearly 20 per cent of the UK population do not describe themselves as ‘White British’, only 6 per cent of all politics postgraduates and under 4 per cent of research students and staff have a BME background

Within the profession

A recent publication by Bates et al in Politics (2012) starkly highlighted the ‘leakage points’ for women (again no split by ethnicity or race available)

Male and female political scientists by job title and in total as of July/August 2011 (% in brackets)

(Source Bates et al, 2012: 141)

HEFCE data shows that BAME account for 6.2% of academic staff and 4.8% of professors.

We do not have data for political science nor is this data broken down by gender. Does PSA have this data?

White students have been shown to gain better degrees that minority students with the same entry grades (this is non political science specific but it might be useful to have the data for our own discipline)

It has been suggested that one of the things these stats tell us is....

If you are BAME and/or a women of any ethnicity or race that ‘When it comes to progressing, you are telling me to stop and that what I am doing doesn't matter. The stats say right now that you are not going to get far’. Indeed, these data point to structural and cultural challenges. So how do we tackle this perception/ and how do we make political science/the PSA relevant for the membership of the 21st century?

We are sure that no one feels comfortable with these statistics. This proposal does not aim to be a comprehensive ‘solution’. Rather it paves the way for a series of proposals which may contribute to a change agenda which may improve the profession and the discipline for all within it.

What follows is a series of issues and proposals about how we think we might advance that agenda. The report is broadly split in to 3 sections: in-reach (within the PSA and the profession); out-reach (beyond the PSA and profession); and political studies (our subject matter).

1. Outreach

Last year the event that the Diversity and Equality Group held as part of Parliament Week 2013 was aimed at year 12 and 13 students. In keeping with that year’s focus on “Women in Democracy”, an all women panel discussed the under-representation of Britons of black and minority ethnic heritage in democratic institutions – only 1 in 25 members of the Commons and 1 in 20 of the House of Lords is from a BME background. Over 130 students from fourteen schools and colleges, the majority BME and female, attended. They heard Labour MP Diane Abbott speak about what inspired her interest in politics and how she first got involved in local politics and community activism before being selected as the Labour candidate in Hackney North and Stoke Newington. She was followed by Christina Dykes, a senior adviser to Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, and former director of the Conservative Party’s Development and Candidates Department who emphasised the political value of diversity and gave an insight into the efforts to introduce greater diversity into the party’s parliamentary candidate list. Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece, a Liberal Democrat working peer and the first Turkish Cypriot woman to enter Parliament, then spoke about her experiences as a local councillor and women’s activist in Hackney in the 1990s as well as a member of the Lords since 2010. The panel was chaired by Shirin Rai, professor of politics at the University of Warwick. After a very lively question and answer session, the panellists, along with James Chiriyankandath and Anil Awesti talked individually to many of the enthusiastic students at the event. The Voice carried a story about the event - - and the entire discussion can be viewed on You Tube -

We would seek to make this a regular event, but not only involve BAME and female politicians but also role models who might be ‘closer’ to the school children, and we would seek to involve U/G students, MAs and PhDs who fit the E&D remit. So that school children can see ‘people like me’.

Proposal 1 to exec: full cost and develop a proposal to be presented at next Exec, to enable these events to run annually. Option of costing the development of a ‘voting app’ to encourage school children to take part in voting for PSA awards.

Step 1 in the pipeline: The teaching of politics in schools.

Shardia within the working group currently teaches politics and citizenship at local inner city schools. Anil also has recent experience of this. They both observe the disconnect between those they teach and the teaching materials they are provided with and what politics means to these students. We would then seek to make some recommendations drawing on resources such as ‘why is my curriculum white? (Youtube); and best practice elsewhere e.g. Dr Robbie Shilliam (QMUL) QMUL; and asking questions such as how do we teach ‘traditional subjects’ and make them relevant?; how do we reach out to those in inner city schools (maybe free school dinners as a criterion) and engage them in politics as a subject?; how do we explain the relevance of a political science degree to this demographic and what can we provide them with to convince their family and friends of the benefit of such a degree?; what kind of materials can we as an organisation produce to connect with this demographic and engage them in the study of politics?)

Proposal 2 to Exec – fully costed proposal to be presented to next exec to explore issues of disconnect among students of politics and make recommendations to feed in to GCSE/A level curriculum also (see proposal 4)

Building the pipeline. MA and PhD students

Proposal 3 to Exec. Fully costed proposal to Exec to produce report and recommendations exploring issues around MA and PhD recruitment. What are the factors that deter BAME/women from pursuing postgraduate study? What are the factors which deter BAME/women from entering the profession.

(This could also include recommendations for example, for bespoke PSA funding awards; prizes and annual awards)

In-reach

The teaching of political science.

Recent research (Foster et al 2013) has questioned the absence of gender as a main component in undergraduate degree programmes. Clearly if we don’t teach our undergraduate students about and discuss gender and these kind of inequalities then this becomes much harder to see. To date the curriculum has not been explored with respect to the teaching of race/ethnicity and disability in political science.

Proposal 4 to Exec. To produce a costed proposal which seeks to chart the number of departments teaching race/ethnicity/disability as part of a core curriculum.

Proposal 5. In conjunction with the Teaching and Skills committee and on the basis of the earlier research by Foster et al and the proposed research above, to produce a costed proposal which explores the way in which the curriculum at GCSE, A Level U/G and P/G level pay attention to issues of gender, race, ethnicity and disability and to make recommendations accordingly. (aligned with proposal 4 and proposal 2)

Step 3 the pipeline. Within the profession

Clearly the statistics point to leakage points throughout the profession, with 85% of the professoriate being male.

Proposal 6 to Exec: produce a costed proposal to include a survey and best practice from politics departments and elsewhere (for example Best practice in philosophy and APSA includes mentoring schemes; unconscious bias training for interview panels)

To draw on survey research conducted by Nick Allen (Royal Holloway) and Heather Savigny (Bournemouth) on BAME/Gender experiences in the profession – currently work in progress.

Increasingly funding councils are asking for gender marks (e.g. Athena Swan; GEM).

Proposal 7. to Exec. Produce a costed proposal to produce guidance for Politics departments in light of requirements of funding councils.

Wider structural issues:

REF has long been recognised as something which rewards men and there have been a number of articles about unconscious bias which sees men predominantly hired, returned and cited (Williams et al, 2015).

Proposal 8 to Exec. Produce a costed proposal to undertake an E&D audit of the REF process and produce recommendations.

The discipline:

How well does the discipline reflect the diversity of contemporary society in terms of its publications?

Research in IR and Politics (Williams et al, 2015) has shown that women are much less likely to get cited than men. Is this also true of BAME colleagues?

Proposal 9 to Exec: produce costed proposal to undertake analysis of journal content and produce best practice guidelines.

Research (Savigny, 2014) has highlighted how despite best intentions there may be an unwillingness to change. Fear about tackling issues of structural disadvantage was a prominent theme in this research. Existing hierarchies have implications for people's well being and there is a discontent that needs to be articulated. This then raises the question, how then can the PSA best support those who may be concerned for their career progression.

Question for Exec discussion. How can the PSA provide the support for the ‘career risk’ that can be incurred by speaking up about these issues? (anecdotally researchers who have worked on issues in the profession have been ‘warned’ not to publish this – what can PSA do to support?)

How do we mainstream E&D in the PSA through specialist group, conferences?

Proposal 10 to Exec – the E&D sub group (Heather, Anil, Emma, Shardia, Jonathan) hold a drinks reception at the PSA conference inviting members to feed back their views. This would need agreement at January Exec in time for April PSA.

Bibliography

Bates, S., Jenkins, L. and Pflaeger, Z. (2012) ‘Women in the Profession: The Composition of UK Political Science Departments by Sex. Politics’, Politics, 32 (3):139–152.

Briggs J & Harrison L (2015) The Status of Women in UK Political Science European Political Science (forthcoming)

Durose, C., Gains, F., Richardson, L., Combs, R., Broome, K. and Eason, C. (2013) Pathways to Politics, Manchester, Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Equality Challenge Unit The experiences of BME staff working in HE. Literature review 2009.

Foster, E. Kerr, P., Hopkins, A., Byrne, C & L. Ahall(2013) The Personal is Not Political: At Least in the UK's Top Politics and IR Departments British Journal of Politics and International Relations 15 (4) pp566-58

Grant, W. (2010) The Development of a Discipline: The History of the Political Studies Association, Wiley Blackwell.

Savigny, H (2015) Women Know your limits: cultural sexism in academia Gender and Education 26 (7)

Williams, H et al (2015) Gender And Journal Authorship: An Assessment Of Articles Published By Women In Three Top British Political Science And International Relations Journals European Political Science (forthcoming)

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