Gender Bias In Academia And Research

We use cognitive categories to reduce complexity and to sort and order the daily flood of information. Cognitive categories include, for example, schemas (Kalin & Hodgins, 1984), prototypes (Fiske & Taylor, 1991), and stereotypes (Glick et al.,1988). However, complexity reduction also has its downsides. It can lead to biases and hasty assumptions that adversely affect certain groups of people. Implicit bias (also called unconscious bias) is such bias. A specific example of implicit bias is gender bias. Gender bias is the term used to describe systematic biasing effects that result from gender-related stereotyping and prejudice. Gender bias is at work in everyday communication and interaction and in academia and research, such as research design, results, and personnel policy decisions.

Find out about studies on this topic, browse video materials, and learn about approaches to reducing gender bias here. Due to its more frequent use and thus easier discoverability, the term gender bias is used here in the singular. However, its content addresses several different bias effects and cognitive shortcuts.

We fundamentally revised the information presented at the beginning of 2022 and updated them in 2023. We want to take this opportunity to thank Jessica Schülein and Jessica Langolf for the creation and the revision.

Since the topic is mainly researched and described in the Anglo-Saxon region, the linked texts, videos and studies are primarily in English. Most of the research results were generated in the USA and the UK as well as in Scandinavia. Studies for the German language area are pending. Such studies within the German-speaking research landscape will have to deal with the terms race and ethnicity used in the previous studies as well as take into account the nation-state-specific social discourses and realities of life in conceptual usages to make a reflective use of those terms (cf. ECU Use of language: race and ethnicity  and APA inclusive language guideline).