The discipline of political science is majority white and male, and women of color comprise less than 5% of all faculty in the profession and remain underrepresented across the subfields (American Political Science Association 2008; Reid and Curry Reference Reid and Curry2019). Persisting underrepresentation of political scientists of color leads some scholars to ask, “Where do we begin?” to increase and sustain diversity and to ensure the well-being, success, and survivability of political scientists of color (Garcia and Hancock Alfaro Reference Garcia and Alfaro2021; Lavariega Monforti Reference Monforti, Jessica, Gutiérrez y Muhs, Niemann, Gonzalez and Harris2012; Mershon and Walsh Reference Mershon and Walsh2016).
Myriad factors contribute to the persisting underrepresentation of political scientists of color. The discipline’s founding and development are steeped in racism, and their legacies prevail (Blatt Reference Blatt2018; McClain et al. Reference McClain, Gloria, Means, Reyes-Barriéntez and Sediqe2016). Racist ideologies and decisions by the discipline’s founders and their successors created and sustained exclusionary practices (McClain Reference McClain2021). Enduring citation practices and silences in flagship journals highlight the marginalization that persists (Brown, Sinclair-Chapman, and Smole Reference Brown, Sinclair-Chapman and Smole2020; Lemi, Osorio, and Rush Reference Lemi, Osorio and Rush2020).
The discipline has not always welcomed and supported people of color.Footnote 1 Isolation, exclusion, and even outright hostility perpetrated by students, faculty, and administrators affect people of color throughout the entire student–faculty pipeline (Alexander-Floyd Reference Alexander-Floyd2015; Argyle and Mendelberg Reference Argyle and Mendelberg2020; Michelson and Lavariega Monforti Reference Michelson and Monforti2021; Sampaio Reference Sampaio2006; Smooth Reference Smooth2016; Willoughby-Herard Reference Willoughby-Herard2019). Such widespread harassment and discrimination are detrimental to political scientists of color (Behl Reference Behl2020; Brown Reference Brown2019).
Another factor influencing diversity concerns whether faculty of color are appropriately connected and supported (Lavariega Monforti and Michelson Reference Monforti, Jessica and Michelson2020; Pedraza and Lajevardi Reference Pedraza and Lajevardi2020). The experiences of women of color have spawned efforts within some institutions and organizations to better support them in the discipline (Cassese and Holman Reference Cassese and Holman2018; Lavariega Monforti and Michelson Reference Monforti, Jessica and Michelson2020; Pedraza and Lajevardi Reference Pedraza and Lajevardi2020; Tormos-Aponte Reference Tormos-Aponte2021). These efforts range in scope and type, and the effect is being evaluated (Michelson and Monforti Reference Michelson and Monforti2021). This article contributes to the ongoing conversations about connectedness and support.Footnote 2
We focus on women of color in the discipline because their experiences and persistent underrepresentation warrant particular consideration. This article highlights sponsorship as a way that faculty, administrators, educational institutions, and professional organizations can better support women of color in the discipline. We argue that, along with mentorship, women of color political scientists need sponsorship throughout their academic career because sponsorship equips them with essential information, tools, and resources that can enhance their well-being and help them thrive professionally. We ground the discussion in our personal and vicarious experiences as women of color political scientists. We also draw on our in-depth interview with Valerie Ashby, the Dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University and a vocal advocate for the sponsorship of faculty of color. Our experiences and this interview inform our understanding of the challenges that women of color faculty face, the type of support they already receive, and how and why sponsorship is critical to strengthening and improving support for women of color.
MENTORSHIP, SPONSORSHIP, AND WOMEN OF COLOR POLITICAL SCIENTISTS
We agree with Majic and Strolovitch’s (Reference Majic and Strolovitch2020, 763) definition of mentorship: “[a] relationship in which more senior members of a profession (in this case, academia) commit their time and energy to guide more junior members of that profession toward fulfilling their teaching, research, and service responsibilities and advancing their career more broadly.” In this dynamic, mentors often dictate the nature and amount of mentorship and provide professional advice, often directly to mentees, about meeting professional expectations. Mentorship is a powerful tool because of this guidance. Nevertheless, the experiences of women of color and their continued underrepresentation in the field imply that mentorship is not enough. We agree. Mentorship is not sponsorship, and we concur with Dean Ashby that sponsorship is not optional.
Sponsorship is “spending one’s social capital or using one’s influence to advocate for a protégé” (Chow Reference Chow2021). Sponsors amplify, advocate for, and help manage the views of the people they sponsor (i.e., sponsorees) by “act[ing] as brand managers and publicists” when sponsorees are both around and not around (Chow Reference Chow2021). However, we believe that sponsorship also entails a reciprocal relationship between a sponsor and a sponsoree that includes intentional and strategic affirmation, amplification, care, collaboration, commitment, consistency, longevity, protection, security, stability, and trust. Sponsorship, therefore, centers on the positionality, challenges, needs, and potential of sponsorees as well as the specific actions that will enhance their life, visibility, and career. Our understanding of sponsorship is consistent with other scholars’ views mainly because we view sponsors as people who mobilize and use their power and influence to support those requiring connection and support (Rockquemore Reference Rockquemore2015). This is distinctly different from mentorship that is mostly guidance aimed directly toward the mentee about fulfilling professional responsibilities.
Assessing women of color political scientists’ needs and experiences leads us to conclude that sponsorship is one way to better support them in the discipline. Building on existing efforts and research and the collective experiences of women of color, we offer a series of recommendations for faculty (i.e., prospective and current sponsors), administrators, and institutions interested in and committed to better supporting women of color through sponsorship.Footnote 3 The sponsorship activities that we suggest do not comprise an exhaustive list—and neither are all of the activities necessary for all women of color—but what we recommend does reflect some of the common needs reported by women of color. When sponsoring women of color in the discipline, it is most important that the sponsorship accounts for the specific challenges and conditions of the sponsorees and centers on their well-being and advancement.Footnote 4
When sponsoring women of color in the discipline, it is most important that the sponsorship accounts for the specific challenges and conditions of the sponsorees and centers on their well-being and advancement.
SPONSORSHIP ACTIVITIES AND SUPPORTING WOMEN OF COLOR IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
To reduce isolation and exclusion and to facilitate sponsorship relationships, women of color political scientists need additional opportunities to network with other scholars (i.e., potential sponsors and mentors; however, a person can be both a sponsor and a mentor), especially senior faculty. Women of color also need opportunities to interact with other women of color at their same rank and across disciplinary boundaries, which can help them find commonalities with other similarly situated women of color (Gutiérrez y Muh et al. Reference Gutiérrez y Muhs, Niemann, Gonzalez and Harris2012). Potential sponsors should prioritize networking events.Footnote 5 Moreover, institutions and organizations should materially support events such as luncheons, workshops, conferences, and retreats that can facilitate women of color meeting sponsors.Footnote 6
Sponsorship typically happens organically, but institutions can play a more active role in helping women of color meet sponsors. Women of color faculty can be carefully and intentionally matched to sponsors through a formal process (e.g., application, vetting, and training) with senior faculty (e.g., tenured professors) and leaders (e.g., department chairs, deans, provosts, and presidents). This formalization of sponsorship can happen within institutions as well as the discipline’s organizations.
Individual faculty members can sponsor women of color by engaging in the following activities, all of which consider what women of color have identified as challenging to their well-being and success. Sponsors can help sponsorees build their networks by introducing them to other senior scholars and leaders, book and journal editors, and grant administrators—all high-status individuals who are essential for scholarly endeavors.
Because research and publishing are significant for success in the profession, sponsors also should help women of color advance their scholarship. Sponsors can do this by sharing relevant opportunities in the field that align with women of color scholars’ research goals (e.g., Call for Proposals) and recommending their sponsorees to appropriate projects. Sponsors also can coauthor and collaborate with their sponsorees. In doing so, sponsors model the research process in political science, increase the work’s visibility, and enhance the final products. Institutions and organizations can support these efforts by creating funding opportunities for collaborations between junior and senior scholars.
Sponsors also can support women of color by providing substantive feedback on in-progress work. Not only does this strengthen in-progress manuscripts; it also provides an accountability structure and contributes to legitimizing the substantive work that women of color report an interest in doing. Moreover, it helps sponsors become familiar with their sponsorees’ work, which allows them to be more informed advocates for that work when amplifying it in their networks, suggesting publication venues, and writing recommendation letters. Organizations and institutions can support this type of sponsorship activity by providing sponsors with a stipend or additional research funding to compensate for their time.
Many of the formal barriers that excluded women of color from the profession’s ranks have been eliminated (Blatt Reference Blatt2018). Nevertheless, the previous exclusion means that the data, the existing bodies of literature, and the discipline’s mainstream methods do not always support work on the populations, questions, and phenomena that many women of color report an interest in studying. Moreover, it means the pool of senior scholars with similar scholarly interests and matching research agendas is limited. As a result, to reach career and professional benchmarks, women of color are in the position of having to contort their work to align with the data, questions, and methodologies reflected in existing research. Pursuing topics that do not truly interest women of color can be intellectually stifling, unsatisfying, demobilizing, and—if done unconvincingly—career ending.
Long-term research success is enhanced by personal connection and interest in the subject that often leads to the creation or pioneering of new frontiers of knowledge. Although this is exciting and important, it is not easy and requires significant protection, support, and time. To address this issue, those interested in sponsoring women of color faculty should invest time and resources in becoming more familiar with new research questions, traditions, literature, and methodologies. If there are matching scholarly interests, sponsors also might expand their research agenda to create space and opportunities for collaboration. Senior faculty are likely well positioned to make slight adjustments to their research agenda because many of the central questions and concerns of the profession have dimensions to them that interest many women of color political scientists (i.e., racial politics).
Finally, sponsors can be present in ways connected to and yet not always myopically focused on research productivity. They can intervene in supportive ways, given the amount of harassment, discrimination, and distraction women of color in political science report (Brown Reference Brown2019). Beyond direct intervention, sponsors can create and enforce antidiscrimination policies and insist that violations are addressed. They also can intercede when they notice excessive invisible and visible service and teaching responsibilities, which scholars have noted often befall women of color in academia. Institutions can support this type of sponsorship by creating and maintaining accountable and harassment-free spaces and by protecting the time of women of color.
CONCLUSION
Sponsorship is critical for women of color in political science. This article highlights how sponsorship can be understood as a type of support for women of color that can enhance their well-being and help them thrive professionally. Sponsorship is not at odds with mentorship; they are different and complementary. Additionally, they are equally necessary components of support and connectedness that influence whether and how women of color navigate the discipline, institutions, and the academy more broadly.
Sponsorship is not at odds with mentorship; they are different and complementary.
Just as women of color will need multiple mentors throughout their career, they also will need many sponsors. As sponsorees develop and make decisions about their career and respond to changing dynamics within their life, institution, and the broader academy, women of color will need different sponsors to help them navigate new terrain. In general, a scholar following a traditional academic trajectory will benefit from sponsors at critical junctions in their career: undergraduate, graduate school, and department after they join the professoriate. They will need sponsors within their department, institution, field of study, and the broader academy, and there likely will be occasional overlap. Dean Ashby described it as a team with players (i.e., sponsors) who play different roles at different times and whose roster is fluid (i.e., remove people from the team who do not produce and add people who show promise).
Sponsorship is deeply impactful, but no amount of individual sponsorship can entirely correct for some of the structural disorders and systemic problems that negatively impact the well-being and career of women of color. However, as much as possible, institutions should encourage and support sponsorship. Failing to facilitate sponsorship of women of color and to institute practices that support the development and success of those it accepts and trains to become faculty means that institutions undermine their professed goals, values, and relevance; misuse their collective resources; and exploit, mislead, and mishandle their members.
Sponsorship is deeply impactful, but no amount of individual sponsorship can entirely correct for some of the structural disorders and systemic problems that negatively impact the well-being and career of women of color.
In conclusion, sponsorship along with mentorship must be a part of how faculty, departments, institutions, and the discipline support women of color because, frankly, it is a collective responsibility that requires collective action and activism (Sinclair-Chapman Reference Sinclair-Chapman2015). Those who care about the representation and health of women of color in the discipline must be creative, responsive, and proactive about ensuring that these women who remain distinctly underrepresented and report experiencing significant marginalization and unique challenges receive the sponsorship and mentorship support that they need. This support is likely to enhance women of color’s well-being and their ultimate success and advancement in academe, which is critical for building and sustaining the pipeline of women of color in the discipline.
