Me Too Political Science: An Introduction

Perhaps how we, as political scientists, and I as the immediate past president of the Women’s Caucus for Political Science (WCPS) came to this study is a worthwhile story to document at the outset of this special issue of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. These details inform a few of the essays in this issue but speak to the overall themes in which authors came to this project. As such, this introduction is less of a traditional introduction but rather is a feminist consciousness raising in the form of academic scholarship. Within, we detail how we approached this study, why we care deeply about this issue, and how we are working toward systemic changes how women+ experience sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence both within the discipline and writ large. It is important to note that the impetus that brought this group of scholars together was the actions of a courageous political scientist who publicly shared how sexual harassment and the lack of conscientious mentorship derailed some aspects of her career. This incident sparked a larger movement in which several members of the discipline heeded a call to action to curtail power imbalances that manifest itself in sexual harassment.

The high-profile accusations of Professor Bill Jacoby—then editor of the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS)—by a member of the WCPS shifted the Caucus’s priorities. We use the hashtag #MeTooPoliSci because the viral claims of sexual harassment in early January 2018 drew many, for the first time, into a public conversation about the impact of sexual misconduct on the discipline of political science. Twitter and the Internet more broadly became an organizing space for feminists and WCPS members to address the prevalence of sexual harassment in political science through the use of this hashtag. Of course, this happened at a time when others throughout the nation were using the hashtag #MeToo to discuss their own experiences with sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence. Started by Tarana Burke in 2007 to stand with young women of color who survived sexual assault, the MeToo campaign was intended to let women know that they were not alone. Today, the phrase is now a viral awareness campaign on social media that has inspired others to share their stories, stand in solidarity with survivors, and to challenge a culture of pervasive sexual misconduct, assault, and harassment.

As the immediate past president of the Women’s Caucus for Political Science, I had the fortunate opportunity to practice my initial goals of helping the WCPS to grow into a more inclusive organization by working with dynamic groups of scholar/activists to actively challenge sexual harassment and misconduct in the discipline. In January 2018 we created a Slack.com group to strategize, plan, and execute several initiatives that are leading to a cultural shift in political science. Scholars who joined the slack.com group varied; some scholars were members of the WCPS, but others were not. Some were simply motivated to join the group because they were outraged by misogyny and hostility directed toward Jacoby’s accuser(s). Again, this group was diverse. The women+ in this group range from full to adjunct professors, from cis-women to gender non-conforming women, and from those with conservative to liberal political views. Because of this diversity, we had to create a form of intersectional solidarity¹ to successfully address issues of sexual harassment, misconduct, and violence in political science.

Of course, this was not an easy task, and there were some bumps and bruises along the way. But I am extremely proud of our work as a collective! Together, we wrote a successful grant application that funded our #MeTooPoliSci short course at the 2018 American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Boston, MA. Additionally, we secured travel funding for short course participants. We also mounted an effective social media and letter writing campaigns to put pressure on the leadership of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) to remove Professor Jacoby from his post as editor of the AJPS. We also partnered with other concerned scholars and organizations, such as Women Also Know Stuff and the MPSA women’s caucus, to visibly protest sexual harassment at professional conferences. Using the hashtag #MeTooPoliSci, we developed an inclusive social media campaign to call attention to gender inequity in the discipline. We also worked with leadership at the American Political Science Association (APSA) through the APSA diversity and inclusion program to find ways to change the pervasive culture of sexual harassment in the discipline. This collaboration led to the association’s first ever Bystander Intervention Training.² Since January 2018 we have worked to actively listen to one another, to respectfully address concerns raised during the planning and implementation of initiatives, and to be as inclusive as possible. I think that the results speak for themselves. By working together on these initiatives, we have shown that diversity is an asset. Indeed, the group process was enhanced by having diverse members equally and freely share their ideas.

The essays in this special issue reflect this diversity. We address sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence in a variety of outlets. But a defining characteristic of how this issue came about was based on feminist organizing. We were approached by Becki Scola, coeditor of JWPP, to create a special issue that uniquely expressed all the ways that feminists understand sexual harassment. It is because of her leadership and vision that this issue is dynamically unique for political science. Moving from research articles, research notes, reflection pieces, essays that give advice and offer guidance, to a poem, I am certain that this special issue is distinct in its embrace of exploring all the ways that women+ know to theorize and study a singular political phenomenon.

I was given full creative license over this special issue and opted to include a mixture of traditional and nontraditional manuscripts that explore sexual harassment. Similar to the creation of the Slack.com group, creating this special issue had its ups and downs. But it was the collective righteous anger of its contributors and the WCPS membership that have fueled scholars to meet the rather quick deadline to write, revise, and submit these essays for this publication. The authors in this volume, like many of us, are all overcommitted scholars who often have multiple responsibilities that leave them with little time to take on new projects. However, these women+ made the time to contribute to the special issue. We are also grateful to reviewers who provided stellar recommendations for the authors in this volume to improve their essays. Again, the collective stepped up to make this special issue a reality and, as one reviewer noted, because we’re “feminist AF!”

Understanding the then-current politics of the early fall of 2018 (when this special issue was submitted for publication) is necessary to contextualize the righteous anger felt by many of the scholars in this volume and that of the WCPS members. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court on October 6, 2018, despite credible claims of sexual misconduct during alcohol-fueled misbehaviors in his youth. Next, a federal judge dismissed Stormy Daniels’s—the adult film actress who alleges she had a consensual sexual affair with then candidate Trump—defamation lawsuit against President Trump on October 17, 2018. In response to the judge’s decision, President Trump took to Twitter to call Daniels “horseface.” Additionally, there have been multiple reports that minors and women have been sexually abused in immigrant detention centers since the summer of 2018, and several high-profile cases have come to light in California this September. Furthermore, in October 2018 the Justice Department opened an investigation into Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania accused of covering up sex abuse for decades. Fresh news reports of sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse seem so commonplace that stories of sexual harassment in the academia are dwarfed by other reports of powerful men in different sectors. For example, reports of systemic and egregious sexual harassment at Rutgers University and Harvard University—particularly in the political science department—barely sustained national attention. In sum, claims of sexual harassment have been more visible. However, feminist academics and those who are working to end sexual harassment have become fatigued with the rapid occurrence of these incidents and are frustrated with the lack of continued public pressure to actually change the power imbalances that enable sexual harassers.

So yes, we are tired of fighting these seemingly daily battles against forms of sexual violence, but we are committed to winning this war. We are united by a rage caused by the injustices of heteropatriarchy, sexism, white supremacy, meritocracy, and misogyny. It is that anger that sustained many of us to write essays for this special issue. This same ire has led others to write new grant proposals to secure funding to further study why the academy continues to lag behind other institutions in curtailing sexual harassment. Others have turned their fury into creating new policies on their individual campuses to better support survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and misconduct. And others have channeled this righteous wrath into creating innovative ways to help abusers and would-be abusers to understand the implications of their actions (or their inactions as bystanders). We recognize the need for a truth and reconciliation process for abusers so that both parties—the victims and abusers—can both heal and find belonging in a future iteration of an academy that does not tolerate sexual harassment.

There is still much work to be done. This special issue is simply one cog in a system of tactics that the WCPS is using to call attention to and hopefully decrease the pervasiveness of sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence. We are grateful for this opportunity to share our research, personal experiences, recommendations for a better political science, and an improved society within the pages of the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. The essays in this special issue speak to sexual harassment in political science, a discipline that is chiefly concerned with studying power. We use our skill set as political scientists to turn the analytical lens on the discipline itself as well as examine organizations, culture, and governments. We also show how policies, organizations, and governments are complicit—or worse legitimize—power imbalances that promote a culture of sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence. These essays shine new light on how facets of our government, society, culture, and discipline continue to marginalize groups with unequal access to power.

The MeToo movement is exposing the perviousness of sexual harassment in culture, politics, entertainment, business, and academia. Survivors of abuse are calling for a shift in how power imbalances leave certain individuals with little recourse for addressing sexual harassment. Together, this collection of essays stands as a tribute to all those who experienced and continue to experience forms of sexual violence. I hope this special issue is impactful on both the discipline of political science as well as our larger culture. We seek to empower women+ to find their voices to challenge the systems and structures that enable abusers.

In closing, I want to draw your attention to the following resources as listed on the APSA website.³ Furthermore, if you have yet to do so, please join the Women’s Caucus for Political Science.⁴ I hope that you enjoy reading this collection and see it as an anger filled, but labor of love from all the contributors. I am optimistic that you find this special issue to be useful in your teaching and research as well as your community engagement.

Acknowledgments

First, I thank the executive board and membership of the Women’s Caucus for Political Science (WCPS) for their encouragement and advocacy that enabled the activism that inspired these essays. I am appreciative of Betsy Super, Kimberly Mealy, and Amanda Grigg at the American Political Science Association (APSA) for their unwavering support of the WCPS and for their work in leading the association to address sexual misconduct, harassment, and violence. The #MeTooPoliSci pre-conference was generously funded through the APSA Centennial Center’s Special Projects Fund. Special thanks to the Co-PIs on the grant, Rebecca Gill, Jennifer Merolla, Melissa Michelson, Elizabeth (Libby) Sharrow, Patricia Stapleton, and Dara Strolovitch for their work to successfully fund the pre-conference. Chaya Y. Crowder, Jaime Hough, and Kristen Smole were instrumental in their work as graduate assistants for the #MeTooPoliSci pre-conference, the event that inspired many of the essays in this volume.

I thank the following individuals for their expertise and assistance as reviewers for these essays: Linda Alvarez, Natasha Bell, Nicole Filler, Christina Greer, Sarah Gershon, Aria Halliday, Erin Heidt-Forsythe, Amber Knight, J. Celeste Lay, Samantha Majic, Jocelyn Mitchell, Kim D. Kreimann, Elizabeth (Libby) Sharrow, and Dawn Teele. This special issue would not be possible without the research assistance of Juliana Restrepo Sanin, Cathy Wineinger, and Mary Nugent.

I am also grateful to Dara Strolovitch for her assistance in organizing, planning, and executing nearly every aspect of the #MeTooPoliSci pre-conference and this special issue. Shauna Shames did much of the administrative work that made this special issue possible. Finally, I thank Becki Scola for her vision for this special issue and her leadership in bringing this issue to fruition.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For more reading on intersectional solidarity please see Weldon et al. (2018), Strolovitch (2007), Tormos (2017).

2. For more information on the APSA sponsored Upstander Bystander straining please visit: https://connect.apsanet.org/apsa2018/apsa-bystander-intervention-training/.

3. See https://www.apsanet.org/divresources/sexualharassment.

4. See https://womenscaucusforpoliticalscience.org/join-wcps/.