Oxley To Deliver Memorial Lecture
ONEONTA
Union College Professor of Political Science Zoe Oxley will deliver the 2023 Leslie G. Rude Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, March 1 at 4 p.m. in the Celebration Room, Shineman Chapel House, on the Hartwick College campus. Her presentation, “This One’s for the Boys: How Gendered Political Socialization Limits Girls’ Political Ambition and Interest” is free and open to the public.
Oxley is part of a team whose latest research on gender and political socialization has been featured in top academic journals and a number of media outlets, including Forbes, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” The 19th, WNYC’s “The Takeaway,” and The Conversation. They found that through the process of gendered political socialization, children learn about the political world, about societal gender roles and about gender in politics. Drawing from surveys of and pictures made by over 1,600 children from across the United States, Oxley and her colleagues find that girls increasingly see political leadership as a “man’s world.”
Simultaneously, as children grow older, they internalize gendered expectations, which direct their interests toward professions that embody the gendered traits that fit with their own sex. One result of this mismatch between women and politics is that girls are less interested in political engagement than are boys.
“I am thrilled that Professor Zoe Oxley will be sharing her important and fascinating research with the Hartwick and Oneonta community,” said Political Science Department Chair Laurel Elder. “Professor Oxley and her colleagues gathered amazing data from elementary school kids and were able to show that, even in the 21st century, the idea that politics is a man’s world is being communicated to children. This research is of paramount importance to the future of our democracy.”
This year’s lecture will also be videotaped and archived at the college’s YouTube page.
For additional information on the Leslie G. Rude Memorial Lecture, contact Elder at (607) 431-4887 or at elderl@hartwick.edu.
