From Margins to Visibility: The Experience of the Red De Politólogas

In this talk, the origins and trajectory of the Red de Politólogas will be examined as a transnational initiative created to confront the persistent underrepresentation of women in political science and public debate. First, the reasons, modes of emergence, and purposes of the network will be outlined, with emphasis placed on its role in making women’s expertise more visible in academia and the media, in training young scholars, and in promoting good practices to improve recruitment, among other initiatives. The articulation of the network with broader political debates and processes will then be discussed, illustrated through its contribution to the campaign for gender parity law in Chile. Finally, attention will be directed to the research promoted by the network to diagnose gender inequalities within academia, exemplified through evidence on the presence of women in scientific editorial boards. Through these experiences, the ways in which collective organization has moved women from the margins of visibility toward recognition and influence in politics and knowledge production will be demonstrated.

ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKERS

Yanina Welp (Ph.D., Pompeu Fabra University) is a research fellow at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Geneva, Switzerland. Between 2008 and 2018, she was principal researcher at the Centre for Democracy Studies and co-director of the Zurich Latin American Centre (2016-2019), both at the University of Zurich. She completed her Habilitation Degree in 2015 at the University of St. Gallen, with the venia legendi in Latin American Studies and she holds two Bachelor degrees in Social Communication and Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), and a Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from the Pompeu Fabra University (Spain). She is founder member of Red de Politólogas. Her research interests are the drivers of (de)democratization and participatory institutions. Welp has published extensively on these topics in academic journals and books, most recently The will of the people. Populism and citizens participation in Latin America (De Gruyter 2022). While at Princeton, she will conduct research on her project on Contemporary Experiments in Popular Government.

Julieta Suárez-Cao (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Her areas of expertise are Latin American politics, subnational politics, intergovernmental relations, political parties, and women’s representation. She has published in the Journal of Comparative Politics, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Regional & Federal Studies, The Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, among other journals. She has co-edited a book on Latin American subnational party systems, and another book on gender and politics in Latin America. She drafted the electoral system that established gender parity for Chile’ Constitutional Convention. She is the coordinator of Red de Politólogas #NoSinMujeres, a project that seeks to promote, make visible, and enhance the work of women dedicated to Latin American political science.

DISCUSSANT

Jo-Marie Burt, Associate Professor, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University; PLAS Visiting Fellow, Princeton University