Engendering Political Science in the Classroom

Abstract

The discipline of political science is concerned with differentials of power between groups. One of the starkest power differentials in society exists between men and women. Women are overwhelmingly represented in the category of unpaid workers, and noticeably absent in the category of property ownership, to give just one example. Is it enough for political science to add gender as one component to its other categories of caste and class, for instance, when it analyzes how power is structured in society? This article is a call for moving beyond this to examine the gendered nature of the concepts—of citizenship, productive work, social contract and the public and private—of political science.