Media representation of political scientists most often comes in the form of news stories that quote experts on topics related to political science, and there is consensus that these experts are disproportionately men, even as the number of women in political science has increased. For example, from March 2015 to March 2016, 80% of the experts quoted on political science topics by
The New York Times were men, and over a similar period
Media Matters for America found that 75% of foreign affairs and national security commentators on
prime time cable and Sunday shows were men. In February 2016,
Samara Klar, then an assistant professor of political science at the
University of Arizona, sent an email to a group of political scientists with the idea to
crowdsource a website that lists women political scientists. By September of 2016, the Women Also Know Stuff database listed more than 1,000 scholars. In mid-2018 it had increased to 1,650 people, and by the end of 2019 it contained approximately 2,000. Since 2016, Women Also Know Stuff has focused on expanding coverage of women experts in political science topics or subfields where it did not have as much information, including a focus in 2017 on expanding coverage of international political science. In addition to its goal of helping to make expert interviews and sources in news stories more equitable, the Women Also Know Stuff database aims to help professors create more equitable
syllabi, and to help organizers of
academic conferences find potential panelists. Women Also Know Stuff also manages a
Twitter feed on which it features the accomplishments of women in political science. ==Related efforts==