Sexism in academia
[3] Controversy exists over whether women's under-representation in specific academic fields is the result of gender discrimination or of other factors such as personal inclination.
[9] Some individuals have argued that there are equal opportunities for women and men in sciences and that sexism no longer exists in these fields.
[15] A case study performed by Pennsylvania State University in 2006 attributes a majority of this gap to familial commitments and the avoidance strategies they create among faculty members.
The travel, possibility of relocation and vigorous work schedules limit the participation of women due to family conflicts.
[26] Additionally, because women of color's bodies are both viewed racially and in terms of their gender in academia, their voices and identities are often overlooked through "elite racism," as coined by Allen et al.
[29] Analyses of gender bias in teacher evaluations have highlighted a pattern of woman professors receiving vastly more negative reviews in comparison to men.
A study published in 2015 by Gita Ghiasi, Vincent Lariviere, and Cassidy Sugimoto demonstrates that women represent 20% of all scientific production in the field of engineering.
Their study shows that when women publish their research in journals with high-impact factors, they receive fewer citations from the engineering community.
[34] The authors explain their findings as a possible consequence of the "Matilda Effect", a phenomenon that systematically undervalues the scientific contributions of women.
In 2015, Heather Sarsons released a working paper comparing credit allocated to men and women in collaborative research.
[35] In the academic disciplines of political science and international relations, research has found evidence of gender bias in publishing and teaching.
[38] In 2013, a study published by Daniel Maliniak, Ryan Powers and Barbara F. Walter used TRIP data from peer-reviewed publications between 1980 and 2006 to show that women are systematically cited less than men after controlling for a number of variables including year and venue of publication, substantive focus, theoretical perspective, methodology, tenure status, and institutional affiliation.
[39] In a 2017 study on publishing patterns in political science journals, Dawn Langan Teele and Kathleen Thelen found that women authors are underrepresented compared to the share of women working in the profession, are not benefiting from the trend toward co-authored publications (dominated by all-men author teams), and lose out from the methodological partiality of top journals in the field.
[43] In 2015, Jeff Colgan conducted an analysis of American post-graduate international relations syllabi and found that 82% of assigned reading was written by all-men authors.
[44] At the London School of Economics, a student-led body called the Gender and Diversity Project (GDP) conducted a similar assessment of syllabi from the full teaching curriculum in the International Relations department from 2015 to 2016.
As many institutions shut down during the pandemic, women faculty members, who make up the majority of non-senior positions, had to juggle non-research-related commitments like participation in hiring committees on top of their research activities.
[47] Studies demonstrated that this gendered gap in publishing rates was most pronounced in biology, biomedical, and clinical medicine publications.
[52] In Australia, Dr. Muireann Irish recounts her and her husband's "strategic decision" to start a family after she was successfully applied for an award by the Australian Research Council.
Dr. Irish describes thinking this decision would give her three years of the research grant but she understood the strict time frame.
While on parental leave, however, her funding was suspended meaning a suspension on data collection and overall a major decision to lay off staff.
In American workplaces, paternal leave creates a culture that deems men weak or incapable of his duties.
[12] In November 2024, English literature researcher Amelia (Ally) Louks sparked social media attention after posting a photo of herself with her defended thesis "Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose" on X.
