Research Policy · 2018 · 206 citations · 41 references
Social SciencesGender StudiesGender PolicyWomen's HealthWomen's StudiesGender And WorkGender DifferencesWomen In Higher EducationWomen In ScienceEarly Career AcademicsGender Disparities In StemGender In ScienceProductivityWomen In BiologyWomen Scientists' Career TrajectoriesWomen’s Academic Career PathwaysWomen’s Career Development
The study investigates how early career transitions contribute to the underrepresentation of women faculty in life sciences. The authors tracked 6,336 scientists from post‑doctoral fellowship to principal investigator status. The analysis shows that the gender gap largely arises at the post‑doctoral to PI transition, with women becoming PIs 20% less often, 60% of the gap explained by lower publication productivity and the rest by reduced citation credit.
We examined the extent to which and why early career transitions have led to women being underrepresented among faculty in the life sciences. We followed the careers of 6,336 scientists from the post-doctoral fellowship stage to becoming a principal investigator (PI) – a critical transition in the academic life sciences. Using a unique dataset that connects individuals’ National Institutes of Health funding histories to their publication records, we found that a large portion of the overall gender gap in the life sciences emerges at this transition. Women become PIs at a 20% lower rate than men. Differences in “productivity” (publication records) can explain about 60% of this differential. The remaining portion appears to stem from gender differences in the returns to similar publication records, with women receiving less credit for their citations.
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Robert Κ. Merton · Science · 1968 · 6.3K citations
The Statistical Analysis of Failure Time Data
John P. Klein · Technometrics · 1982 · 2.2K citations