Gender Bias Prevails in Academia

It is still an upstream battle for women trying to reach the top of the career ladder in academia. In Germany, 44 % of all doctoral candidates are women, but this number drops sharply down to 25 % at the post-doctoral “on their way to tenure" track. In leadership positions within academia, only 13 % are women [1].

The Council of Canadian Academics reports slightly higher number with 32 % women in faculty positions [2], but the pattern is the same: there is a staggering decline in the percentage of women in higher positions, while the trend is reversed for men. The highest-ranking positions are still being filled by men, and the skewed composition remains discouraging.
One might set aside the choice of lifestyle issue for a moment – that some women simply choose to stay away from the leadership role in order to play a bigger role in family life – and simply consider the matter of how individuals with hiring power perceive one gender over another. Shocking is the statistical evidence that there is still a laden gender bias within our current system: a new study by Moss-Racusin and colleagues has announced that there are prevailing attitudes amongst faculty members when making hiring decisions to fill managerial posts. The study, led by Jo Handelsman from Yale University, looks at academic biology and physics and questions current faculty members' perception of individual candidates in terms of their hireability and starting salary [3]. The surveyed faculty members, a mixed group in terms of gender composition, were shown application materials for a management position. The applications were randomly assigned male or female names. The results were shocking: across all parameters – competence, hireability, inclination to mentor, and salary -- the applications with a male name were ranked significantly and consistently higher. Even female faculty members held these beliefs based on the name of the applicant being either male or female.

Source: Council of Canadian Academies, 2012. Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension. The Expert Panel of Women in University Research, Council of Canadian Academies. 

Since each individual likely judges their own worth and aptitude based on their perceived ranking and feedback from superiors in any given career field, engrained preference of a male candidate over themselves may discourage women from seeking out higher positions. The study points out powerful cultural norms, which prevail in even the most rational disciplines such as physics or biology.
The results of this study highlight the continued need to strengthen, foster and incentivize women to apply to high-level academic posts in order to counter the current cultural status quo and perception of competence.

By Gina Eom
This article originally appeared 2013 in CNS Volume 6, Issue 1, Gender Differences

[1] BMBF Report on Programme for Women Professors, 2012
[2] Council of Canadian Academics Report in Focus November 2012
[3] Moss-Racusin et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2012