Ukrainian political science under feminization: the struggle “pro” and “contra” the patriarchal episteme.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31558/2519-2949.2018.4.7Keywords:
gender, political science, patriarchal episteme, feminizationAbstract
The article is devoted to the gender dimension of political science in modern Ukraine. The empirical base is 1687 posts about the defence of the Ph.D. and doctoral theses in political science, as well as 35 interviews with professors and associate professors from Kharkiv, Lviv and Simferopol.
Male/female applicants have been divided into two groups: applicants from the Academy and outside it. In the first group feminization of modern Ukrainian political science at the Ph.D. level and masculinization at the doctoral level is revealed. In the second group masculinization is found out at the both levels of science. The reason for the simultaneous feminization of the “education / science system” and / or the masculinization “outside the education system / science” is that gender reflects the general structure of power in society. Male and female applicants from outside the Academy, ranging from ministers to prosecutors, add to it the power and property hierarchies that are more common to other areas of social and political life in Ukraine. As a result of the patriarchy of Ukrainian society the number of male applicants is increasing and the number of female applicants is decreasing. Such a transfer involves the commercialization of “legitimate” academic relationships and the adoption of a new hybrid system of scientific gender selection.
The second part of the article deals with autobiographical narratives of the professors and associate professors in three Ukrainian political science communities. The dominant gender regime in the profession of political science is reconstructed and its perception by male and female practitioners is described. There are two main indicators of gender (in)equality in the profession: 1) the prevalence of diametrically opposed thoughts about discrimination, and 2) the tendency to direct distortion the (objective) facts. According to my hypothesis feminization of Ukrainian political science is not accompanied by the deconstruction of the patriarchal episteme. In particular, the female political scientists’ awareness of their own importance is formulated in the categories of gender stereotypes and evaluated in terms of establishing hegemony through the development of gender roles being traditionally considered as the “male” ones.
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