Sex differences in scientific productivity and impact are largely explained by the proportion of highly productive individuals: a whole-population study of researchers across six disciplines in Sweden
Autor/in:
Madison, Guy; Sundell, Knut
Quelle: Studies in Higher Education, 49 (2024) 1, S 119–140
Inhalt: Sex differences in human performance have been documented across a wide array of human endeavours. Males tend to exhibit higher performance in intellectually demanding and competitive domains, and this difference tends to be more pronounced the higher the level of performance. Here, we analyse publishing performance for the whole population of associate and full professors in relatively sex-balanced disciplines, namely Education, Nursing and Caring Science, Psychology, Public Health, Sociology, and Social Work, comprising 426 women and 562 men. We find that sex differences in the number of publications, citations, and citations per publication were small across low and medium levels of productivity, but become more pronounced the higher the level of performance. In the top performing 10% the female proportion decreases from the average 43.2% to 26% (25 F, 71 M), which further decreases to 15% in the top 5%. The results are discussed with respect to the greater male variability hypothesis, sex differences in psychological traits, and environmental factors such as sex discrimination.
Schlagwörter:Bibliometrie; gender bias; meritocracy; productivity; publication gap; sex difference
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Gender disparity in the effects of COVID‐19 on academic productivity and career satisfaction in anesthesiology in the US: Results of a national survey of anesthesiologists
Autor/in:
Jankowska, Anna E.; Pai, Sher‐Lu; Lee, Jennifer K.; Austin, Thomas M.; Nyshadham, Soumya; Diachun, Carol Ann B.; Byerly, Stephanie I.; Hertzberg, Linda B.; Berenstain, Laura K.
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2023)
Inhalt: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic created unprecedented challenges for anesthesiologists both at work and home. This study examined whether the pandemic affected academic productivity and career satisfaction among anesthesiologists practicing in the United States during the early stages of the pandemic and whether these effects differed by gender. A survey was emailed to 25,473 members of the American Society of Anesthesiologists to learn about their experiences during the beginning of the pandemic. The survey directed respondents to rate their change in academic productivity, clinical care hours, scholarly and leadership opportunities, income, childcare duties, and household responsibilities during the first 5 months of the pandemic (March 1–July 31, 2020). The primary variable was gender, academic productivity was the primary outcome, and data were analyzed by multivariable proportional odds logistic regression models and correlations. Female anesthesiologists reported lower academic productivity and career satisfaction relative to male anesthesiologists during the study period. Career satisfaction positively correlated with academic productivity. Compared to male anesthesiologists, female anesthesiologists also had more household responsibilities before and during the pandemic. Being a female parent reduced academic productivity relative to that reported by nonparents of either gender. In conclusion, the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater adverse professional impact on female anesthesiologists than on their male counterparts. Efforts to support and retain female anesthesiologists, particularly those early in their careers and those with children, are essential for the specialty to maintain its workforce and promote gender equity in promotion and leadership.
Women academics experiences of maternity leave in the neoliberal university: Unmasking governmentality
Autor/in:
Jones, Karen; Floyd, Alan
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2023)
Inhalt: Addressing a paucity of large-scale studies about women academics maternity experiences of leave in academia and under-theorizing the influence of neoliberalism on this phenomenon, this research provides one of the largest studies of women's experiences of maternity leave in the academic sector. Secondary analysis of a subset of data from a global online mixed method survey with 553 women academics (82% UK, 18% international) was undertaken to explore experiences and implications of maternity leave for women. The findings reveal that women academics continued to undertake core academic work duties during maternity leave such as writing grant applications and journal articles, supervising doctoral students, teaching, and responding to emails. We document four distinct orientations adopted by women during maternity leave that characterize neoliberal subjectivity and use Foucauldian governmentality to unmask the inculcation of such norms. Our analysis shows how neoliberal ideology has gained a hegemonic position in academia that leaves little space for maternity leave, resulting in many women effectively relinquishing their maternity rights to sustain academic productivity. We argue that neoliberalism and new managerialism within the academy undermine policies to support women's maternity rights. The findings of this study will be of interest to scholars and Human Resources professionals, academic mothers, managers, and policymakers who are championing change in the sector.
Gendered work in geoscience: Hard work in a masculine field
Autor/in:
Heimann, Samuel; Johansson, Kristina
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2023)
Inhalt: Based on the meaning-making of women geoscientists in their descriptions of work and career experiences, this article explores the gendering of geoscience by analyzing women's hard work as a theoretical concept. Our findings show that the gendered requirements for women in geoscience involve “doing” various forms of hard work, including making one's work visible, asserting one's physical performance, and building social relations. Thus, hard work is found to be gendered in terms of being a perceived requirement shared by female geoscientists. It is a requirement that entails compensating for not being male in masculine organizations and simultaneously prevents women geoscientists from fully engaging in core geoscience work tasks. Hence, by gendering hard work and theoretically defining hard work as the work of the “other”, the study expands the theoretical understanding of the concept by suggesting that women's hard work is gendered and social rather than productive.
Schlagwörter:Arbeitsbedingungen; career; geoscience; Geowissenschaften; Organisationskultur; work
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Social capital in academia: How does postdocs’ relationship with their superior professors shape their career intentions?
Autor/in:
Epstein, Nurith; Elhalaby, Christina
Quelle: Int J Educ Vocat Guidance (International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance), (2023)
Inhalt: Sozialkapital in der Wissenschaft: Wie prägt die Beziehung von Postdocs zu ihren vorgesetzten Professor*innen ihre Karriereintentionen? In dieser Studie stellen wir die Hypothese auf, dass Professor*innen einen wichtigen Einfluss auf die Karriereintentionen ihrer Postdocs haben. Multivariate Regressionsanalysen zeigen einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen den von den Postdocs eingeschätzten Vorgesetztenbeziehungen, ihrer Integration in die wissenschaftliche Gemeinschaft und ihren Karriereintentionen. Darüber hinaus standen Veröffentlichungen als Koautor*innen in einem signifikanten Zusammenhang mit der Absicht, eine Professur anzustreben. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Sozialkapital, insbesondere die Qualität des Sozialkapitals von Postdocs, für ihre Karriereintentionen wichtig ist: Insbesondere die Beziehung zu ihren vorgesetzten Professor*innen, die Integration in die wissenschaftliche Gemeinschaft und die Verbindungen zu anderen Wissenschaftler*innen, die sich in Publikationen niederschlagen. Abschließend In this study, we hypothesize that full professors have an important impact on their postdocs’ career intentions. Using multivariate regression analysis, we found a positive association between postdocs’ ratings of their professor relationship, their integration into the scientific community and their career intentions. In addition, publications as a co-author were significantly related to the intention to pursue professorship. Our results suggest that social capital but specifically the quality of postdocs’ social capital is important for their career intentions: particularly the relationship with their professor, integration into the scientific community and ties to other scientists that translate into publications. Implications for career strategy on the individual level and policy implications are discussed.diskutieren wir Implikationen für individuelle Karrierestrategien und politische Implikationen.
Schlagwörter:academic network; career ambition; Netzwerk; Post-doc; Professor*in; publication; scientific community; social capital; soziales Kapital
The cost of ‘care’ in neoliberal academia during the COVID-19 pandemic: Women academics, teaching and emotional labour
Autor/in:
França, Thais; Vicente, Mara; Godinho, Filipa; Padilla, Beatriz; Amâncio, Lígia; Alexandre, Ana Fernandes
Quelle: European Journal of Women's Studies, (2023)
Inhalt: The literature shows that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in the different regions of the world (Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and Latin America), women academics submitted fewer articles and grant proposals than their peers who are men because, in addition to the increased burden of domestic work, they devoted more time to teaching activities and to the demands of students, than to their research activities. However, little is known about what drives the high level of commitment by women academics to their tutoring and pastoral care duties. This article looks at how women embodied their teaching tasks throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ‘emotional labour’ that this required of them. Findings from the analysis of 17 in-depth interviews conducted with women scholars in Portugal point to the complexity and contradictions in the ‘emotional labour’ carried out by women teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide evidence of overlaps with the practice of ‘care’.
Cross-national variations in postdoc precarity: An inquiry into the role of career structures and research funding models
Autor/in:
O’Connor, Pat; Le Feuvre, Nicky; Sümer, Sevil
Quelle: Policy Futures in Education, (2023)
Inhalt: Insecurity and intense competition for permanent academic positions appear to be common experiences for early career researchers across the globe. With academic precarity now firmly on the international research and policy agenda, this article looks comparatively at postdoc precarity in three European countries: Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. It suggests that the career prospects and status of these early career stage researchers depend to a large extent on societal variations in academic career structures and research funding models. The article underlines the implications of an increasingly competitive academic labour market on postdoc precarity and identifies both common and specific (national and/or disciplinary) challenges facing postdocs in these different contexts.
Schlagwörter:career structures; early career researcher; international comparison; internationaler Vergleich; Post-doc; precarity; prekäre Beschäftigung; research funding; wissenschaftliche Karriere
CEWS Kategorie:Europa und Internationales, Wissenschaft als Beruf
„Mit Geschlecht hat das aber nichts zu tun“ : Über die Schwierigkeiten von Professorinnen, über Geschlecht (nicht) zu sprechen
Autor/in:
Paulitz, Tanja; Wagner, Leonie
Quelle: GENDER (GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft), 15 (2023) 2, S 117–131
Inhalt: Historisch wie aktuell finden sich in Interviews mit Professorinnen Konstruktionen von Geschlechtsneutralität, mit denen sie versuchen, die Widersprüche zu bearbeiten, die sich aus der Meritokratienorm der Wissenschaft und gleichstellungspolitischen Versprechungen einerseits und alltäglichen Erfahrungen in der Hochschule andererseits ergeben. In einer aktuellen qualitativen Untersuchung an Hochschulen (Universitäten, Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften, Kunst- und Musikhochschulen) wurden erstmals seit den 1980er-Jahren Erzählungen von Professor:innen über alltägliche Erfahrungen bzw. deren Einordnung in eine vergeschlechtlichte Organisationskultur analysiert. Zentraler Befund ist die regelmäßige und proaktive Dethematisierung von Geschlecht als relevanter Faktor für erfahrene Marginalisierungen. Diese Aussagen werden im vorliegenden Beitrag nicht als nahtlose Deskription einer heute erreichten Geschlechtsegalität gedeutet, sondern als Praktiken der Bürgschaft für eine vermeintlich erreichte geschlechterneutrale Hochschule sowie als eigene Statussicherung auf der Position als Professorin und meritokratisch anerkannte Leistungsträgerin.
Both historically and currently, interviews with women professors reveal constructions of gender neutrality with which they try to work through the contradictions that arise from the meritocratic norm of science and equality policy promises on the one hand and everyday experiences in higher education on the other. In a recent qualitative study conducted at higher education institutions (universities, universities of applied sciences, art and music academies) professors’ narrations about everyday experiences and their placement within a gendered organizational culture were analysed for the first time since the 1980s. The key finding is the regular and proactive de-thematization of gender as a relevant factor in experienced marginalization. In this article, these statements are not interpreted as a seamless description of that gender equality that has been achieved to date, but as practices that vouch for a supposedly achieved gender-neutral university and that serve to protect one’s status as women professors and meritocratically recognized high achievers.
Precarity of post doctorate career breaks: does gender matter?
Autor/in:
Jones, Karen
Quelle: Studies in Higher Education, 48 (2023) 10, S 1576–1594
Inhalt: Against a background of Bologna process goals to improve employment prospects for PhD graduates, and the crisis of precarious employment conditions and prospects afflicting postdoctoral researchers – hitherto postdocs, the OECD ([2021], “Reducing the Precarity of Academic Research Careers.” In OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers. Paris: OECD Publishing,) called for research into postdoctoral careers and the precarity phenomenon. This paper responds by giving attention to career breaks as these represent a prevalent but under researched aspect of postdoc precarity in the contemporary academic labor market. Utilizing a substantial international mixed-method dataset with a sample of 950 postdocs, the study examined experiences and perceptions of the professional and personal implications of academic career breaks. Results reveal significant differences between males and females in key areas: maternity was the main reason for females’ career breaks, and redundancy/end of contract for males. Females resumed employment more with the same employer and males with a different employer. Support surrounding career breaks was mixed, largely inadequate, but not associated with gender. Perceptions of career breaks differed significantly across groups of postdocs that previously experienced a career break, those on a career break, and postdocs that had never had a career break. The latter two groups perceived negative career outcomes and positive personal outcomes more than postdocs who had previously had a career break, however, significant gender differences indicate females were more negative about the personal implications of career breaks. Discussion of the findings concludes that under neoliberalism postdocs represent a growing lumpen proletariat, leading to recommendations for policy, practice and further research into gender, precarity and postdoctoral careers.