The political science field has been growing, and the number of women in politics has increased along with it.
Recent UI graduate Delaney Behning just completed her bachelor’s degree in political science and is ready to take her next steps into the field and her career.
The University of Iowa has a prominent political science program, ranked in the top 100 of the best programs in the county by U.S. News and World Report. In 2022, a total of 47,686 political science degrees were awarded in the US, and the number of people in the workforce is around 4.07 million and continues to grow.
Political Science was once, and still is, in ways, a male-dominated field. Politics is a difficult career for anyone, but especially for women. There are 18 countries in the world that have a woman as head of state and 15 that have a woman as head of government.
As of 2023, the U.S. was outranked by 42 other countries in the Gender Parity Index, an index that marks and observes national gender gaps on political, economic, and social levels. Women occupied the most political roles in 2023, with the share of women in the U.S. Congress increased to 28 percent. In 2024, the number of women in Congress dropped by 0.5 percent.
At the current rate, it will take more than 80 years to reach gender equality in legislative politics alone.
Behning graduated in the fall with bachelor’s degrees in both political science and ethics and public policy. She is working as a teaching assistant during her last semester at UI and will start law school in the fall. Behning also picked up a minor in philosophy and a Sustainability Certificate during her time at the university.
Behning grew up in a rural town in Iowa before coming to Iowa City. She said ever since she was young, she’s had her mind set on being an attorney. She chose to follow the political science track at the UI to prepare her for law school. Throughout college, her interests were refined, and she discovered her passion for environmental law and policy.
“Throughout college, I’ve been involved in different policy spaces,” Behning said. “I was in undergraduate student government, which was a good overlap of campus and state policy while also being able to look at environmental issues and government affairs. I worked as a governmental relations intern in D.C. for a trade association that focused on electricity issues.”
Although Behning always wanted to be an attorney, she was not very politically engaged until her junior and senior years of high school. When the COVID-19 pandemic cut her junior year short, her interest in national politics grew. She said she became more aware of national institutional issues during this time.
“In 2020, I started to get very involved with local organizing … I was at protests and rallies. It was a mix of external forces that really brought out a passion that I didn’t know I had. Since then, I’ve been very politically involved at every level. It ignited something in me,” she said.
UI first-year student Megan Quinn is now in her second semester and has also chosen to go into political science.
Quinn moved to the Iowa City area from an Illinois suburb when she was 11 years old. She discovered her interest in politics during the 2016 presidential election. She began taking political science prerequisites at the beginning of the school year.
“I really like the math part of it — it’s interesting how math integrates with politics,” Quinn said.
Since political science has historically been a male-dominated field, there are still biases surrounding women in the field despite there being more women present than ever. It can be discouraging to be underestimated in your field of work, something that Behning is no stranger to.
“In my courses, there’s a pretty good mix of men and women. However, there’s those underlying biases. In internships I’ve had, it’s crazy how starkly people are treated based on gender and appearance,” Behning said. “It takes a while to gain people’s respect; I can dress the part, I can do the things I’m supposed to do, but I’m not taken as seriously as my male colleagues.”
Quinn has also struggled with gender and age biases in political science and policy.
“Before college, I was involved in March for Our Lives Iowa,” she said. “I faced some struggles there, such as older people not taking me seriously. I haven’t dealt with much bias in regard to gender, but I expect that to change soon.”
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Quinn said she believes things will continue to get worse until they get better for average individuals living in the U.S.
The UI offers political science graduate programs with five areas of study: American politics, comparative politics, international relations, formal theory, and research methods. Taylor Tokos is currently a research assistant in the UI doctoral program. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Tokos moved to Iowa City after finishing her undergrad in political science at Creighton University in Omaha.
“Creighton is a smaller school, so they don’t have a Ph.D. program,” Tokos said. “One of their undergrad students went on to get a Ph.D. came and gave us a talk. He talked about his article written about LGBTQ representation in policy and the states, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is really amazing.’ That kind of got me interested in studying political science further.”
Tokos’s original plan was to apply to a master’s program, but one of her advisors at Creighton encouraged her to reach higher.
“In my head, I was like, ‘I could never apply to a Ph.D. program.’ He [the advisor] said, ‘Yes, you definitely can. I’m in my third year of the program now and have two more years,” she said.
Tokos said one of her favorite aspects of being a graduate student is the research she does.
“In general, I enjoy research and learning about the research process. I’ve been able to understand data and data analysis more as I progress in the field. Also, the collaboration aspect. There’s a lot of working together with classmates and professors. Our department does a lot to support women specifically, we hold different events for women in political science and seminars. There’s a good culture at the university,” Tokos said.
Political science is expanding and offers lots of opportunities and careers. As it is an intimidating field, some may hesitate to enter, especially if they are women. Behning’s advice for those who are skeptical about entering the world of politics is simple: don’t give up.
“I would advise any woman who cares about political issues to come into this space and be politically involved. While it is challenging, nothing that is worth doing is not challenging. Building each other up as women and seeking out other women as support is so crucial. This is a time to be brave — we are all brave, we just have to harness that,” she said.