The Context of Scientific Achievement: Sex Status, Organizational Environments, and the Timing of Publication on Scholarship Outcomes

Abstract

Within the sociology of science, there exists a substantial literature showing that males, on average, publish more than females. This literature directs our attention toward organizational contexts and the timing of publication as promising factors bearing on cumulative scholarship outcomes. In this inquiry, based on 2,910 persons who received doctorates in sociology between 1972 and 1976, we isolate the importance of organizational context to explain the emergent and cumulative sex differences in publication outcomes. Our findings reveal that existing scholarship differences between males and females in this cohort occur within the first six years of the doctorate and continue throughout the career as a result of different employment patterns and publication trajectories. Notably, we find support for Robert Merton's contention that context structures the display of individual merit.