Still a ways to go: science faculty favor male applicants

Gender discrimination in the workplace seems to be subtler these days, for instance, the higher focus and scrutiny on women’s attire and appearance or the not-so-subtle implication that a women’s looks contributed to her success. While I have never been told that I could not achieve something because I was a woman, I was told that I would have to work harder to break through perceptions and stereotypes. So I didn’t wear make-up for my first few months of graduate school and tried to keep any tears private for fear of not being taken seriously. But a recent(ish) study in PNAS suggests that gender bias in science begins before one even sees the applicant.

The study, led by social psychologist Dr. Corinne Moss-Racusin, an assistant professor of Skidmore College, sought to identify gender bias in science professors across disciplines. Professors at universities across the U.S. were sent resumes from students applying for a laboratory manager position. The resume was identical in every way other than the name of the applicant: Jennifer or John.

Results: the professors were more likely to see the applicant as competent and worthy of mentorship and more likely to hire them if the name on the application was male. The median salary offered to John was 13% higher than Jennifer, again, despite the fact that their qualifications were identical. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am still discouraged, that male and female professors exhibited this gender bias equally. Tenure-status did not impact the extent of gender bias either, disputing the idea that it is only old men who are partaking in discrimination. Professors ranked the female candidate higher than John on likeability. This, along with the scores from participants’ modern sexism scale survey, led the authors to conclude that cultural stereotypes affect professors’ perceptions of students’ competence and lead to unintentional gender bias within academia.

The take-away: give your daughter a gender ambiguous name?

References:

Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M., and Handelsman, J. (2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 16474-16479.