Committee Members (Kristen Moore, Leonie Huddie, and Susan Clark) from the Task Force on Mentoring were instrumental in securing funding for a recent APSA workshop held on Friday March 5, 2004 to discuss the career advancement of women in political science. The attendees included 25 political scientists from around the country as well as National Science Foundation program officers. The workshop was funded in part by an NSF Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER). The workshop had the following goals:

The grant funds evaluation of the current knowledge base regarding women's advancement in political science and identification of the major barriers to women's numerical increase in the discipline. To foster exchange across social science fields and benefit from evidence obtained by sociologists and economists, the workshop participants invited several scholars who have studied women's development in the sciences and social sciences. In addition, invited participants included political scientists who direct large-scale team-based research projects, hold leadership positions in the field, and/or have an active interest in gender issues and the advancement of women. Plans are underway to secure a larger grant from the National Science Foundation to develop successful interventions to prmote women's leadership and advancement in the discipline.