International Relations in the Czech Republic: Where Have All the Women Gone?
Abstract
In this article, we strive to explore what are some of the causes of the
scarcity of women researchers in Czech international relations in
comparison to the representation of women students in the field. To
answer this question, we analysed a set of semi-structured interviews with
international relations students and accessible syllabi using the conceptual
framework of Sandra Harding's gendered universe, which differentiates
between the operations of gender on the individual, structural and
symbolic level. We identified some gendered barriers that might be
blocking women researchers' access to the field. On this basis we suggest
that the lack of women researchers in the field parallels the situation in
other social sciences and humanities disciplines, but the situation in
international relations is further exacerbated by the local circumstances of
the foundation of the discipline, which shaped it as a predominantly
masculine field with a specific gender-blind version of doing research and
academic careers.
Keywords
international relations, working/study environment, research field, academic career, gender, women researchers, Czech Republic
Author Biography
Blanka Nyklová
Blanka Nyklová is a researcher at the Centre for Gender and Research of the Institute of
Sociology, the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research interests span
geopolitics of knowledge, forms of feminist engagement as well as gender
in chemical research.
Kateřina Cidlinská
Kateřina Cidlinská is a researcher at the Institute of Sociology, the Czech Academy of
Sciences, and a PhD candidate in the Institute of Sociological Studies, the
Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. Her research
focuses on academic careers and academic identities.
Nina Fárová
Nina Fárová is currently enrolled in the doctoral degree program at the Department
of Anthropology at the University of West Bohemia. As a member of the
Centre for Gender and Research of the Institute of Sociology of the Czech
Academy of Sciences, she has been conducting a research into the Czech
educational system, focusing on the issue of men and masculinity in a
feminized context.