In improving the status of women in the social science disciplines, some areas have done better than others. The effect of feminist critique on shaping these disciplinary histories, and contributing to their widely differing gender profiles is largely unknown.

The Gender and Feminism in the Social Sciences: Equity, Excellence and Knowledge in the Disciplines research project takes an inter-disciplinary approach to consider gender and feminism in the social sciences across Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science and History. The project has two main interconnected aims:

1. To investigate the relationship of the gender profile of these disciplines and their incorporation of feminist critique and knowledge
2. To investigate the influence of the university as an institution, on the shape, content and practice of these disciplines. In particular, the project will examine the tension between the goals of excellence and equity. 

The project leaders are:
Professor Marian Sawer 
Professor Ann Curthoys 
Professor Ann McGrath 
Dr Fiona Jenkins 
Dr Helen Keane

This project is funded in 2012 by the Australian National University Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS), Gender Institute (GI), and by a College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) pilot grant awarded to Fiona Jenkins in 2011.

Note: An application for an ARC Discovery grant for this project has been submitted in 2012, involving Sawer, Curthoys, Jenkins, Keane as Chief Investigators, and Dr. Claire Donovan (Brunel) as a Partner Investigator.