How science faculty can impact the participation of women in science

Implicit biases of both men and women professors in science that negatively impact the hiring of women students must be addressed to improve the gender gap in science.

Women remain underrepresented in science despite decades of efforts to change the numbers. In a landmark study, researchers demonstrated that biases held by science faculty members impacted their student hiring decisions and could therefore contribute to the gender disparity in science.

A randomized double-blind study was conducted with 127 participants from a nationwide sample of men and women professors from biology, chemistry, and physics departments. The professors were asked to evaluate an undergraduate student’s application for a laboratory manager position. The student applicant was randomly assigned either a man’s name or a woman’s name.

Results indicated that the faculty members rated the male applicant as more competent and more hireable than the female applicant despite both applicants having identical backgrounds. Both female and male professors were equally likely to display bias against the female student and view her as less competent. Implicit bias against women was correlated with less support for the female student but did not impact support for the male student. Faculty members also chose to offer a higher starting salary and more careering mentoring to the male applicant.

The authors noted the importance of addressing faculty gender bias to increase the participation of women in science. Not doing so risks losing the best and brightest future scientists.

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Study Details

Sample size(s): n = 127 (63 — assigned a male name, 64 — assigned a female name).

Participants: N/A

Design: Experimental, randomized double-blind study

Reference:

Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J., & Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(41), 16474–16479. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109

Summarized by WinSights team members: Khushi Sheth, Asal Eshghabadi, Razan Mohamed & Shohini Ghose