The Impact of Gender on International Relations Simulations

Abstract

Model United Nations (MUN) simulations are an increasingly popular approach to teaching international relations, in both secondary and tertiary education. There is some evidence, however, that these simulations disadvantage female participants. Studies by Rosenthal et al. and Coughlin found that female students participate less in simulations than their male classmates. This may limit the value of simulations, which have otherwise been recognized as an effective active learning technique. This study investigates the impact of gender, and an intervention designed to address gender disparities in participation, on a MUN simulation conducted in a second-year undergraduate course. The study confirmed previous findings that women participate less than men, relative to their representation, and that this impacted their resulting grades. Participation was lowest on traditionally masculine topics. Furthermore, women enjoyed the simulation less than men, felt less included, and were less likely to report an increase in their confidence as negotiators following the simulation. The intervention we conducted, designed to ameliorate gender disparities in participation, was unsuccessful and may have inadvertently created a stereotype threat. This highlights that students come to the classroom with strongly gendered expectations, and that a short-term, explicit approach to addressing such expectations is insufficient.

Keywords:

• Gender
• simulations
• international relations
• Model United Nations

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the wonderful students in our class who agreed to participate in this research. We also have to thank Dean Lindsay - our student intern - for his truly excellent work in recording the data from the classes, great teamwork, professionalism and observations and insights. Finally, thanks to Ian Rosier who provided some help with the statistics analysis.

Notes

1 Deborah is now at the University of New South Wales Canberra.

2 The curriculum and learning outcomes were developed using insights from existing literature and are described and analyzed in Engel, Pallas and Lambert (2017).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Engel

Susan Engel is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at the University the Wollongong. She lectures in the areas of development, international politics and political economy and Southeast Asian politics. She has written on book on the Word Bank in Southeast Asia and over 25 journal articles and chapters. She is currently researching multilateral development finance, development cooperation between the nations of the Global South, the role of emotions in development in particular in sanitation and microfinance programs, and teaching and learning in international studies. Susan worked in the government, community, and aid sectors before becoming an academic. She has volunteered with indigo foundation, a not-for-profit community development NGO since 2002.

Deborah Mayersen

Deborah Mayersen is a Lecturer in International and Political Studies at the University of New South Wales Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Deborah’s research expertise is in the field of genocide studies, including the Armenian genocide, the Rwandan genocide and genocide prevention. Her publications include On the Path to Genocide: Armenia and Rwanda Reexamined (Berghahn Books, 2014), and the edited volumes A Cultural History of Genocide in the Modern World (Bloomsbury, in-press), The United Nations and Genocide (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Genocide and Mass Atrocities in Asia: Legacies and Prevention(with Annie Pohlman, Routledge, 2013).

David Pedersen

David Pedersen is a Doctoral Candidate and tutor of International Relations at the University of Wollongong. David’s PhD research critically investigates how the political economy of tourism development in Indonesia has transitioned since the end of the New Order regime. He has a publication with Susan Engel on “Microfinance as Poverty-Shame Debt” in Emotions and Society 2019.

Joakim Eidenfalk

Joakim Eidenfalk is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research interests include Australian foreign policy and theories of foreign policy, in particular regarding political leadership, decision-making, and linkages between domestic and foreign policy. He has recently published articles in Contemporary Security Policy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs and the Journal of Social and Political Psychology.