Underrepresentation of Women In Science

I normally do not post about sexism, racism, and other forms of bigotry in the scientific community here.  While I obviously think they exist and am against them, it is ambiguous how these “isms” impact/bias the scientific literature.  (I am sure they do.  But perhaps in a less concrete way than, say, the file-drawer phenomenon, or clear misuse of statistics.)

That said, there have been a number of posts and studies recently about sexism in the scientific community.  Here’s a round up:

• Nature, one of the most prominent scientific journals, reports that less than a fifth of their editors are women.

• Jennifer Jacquet and her co-authors looked at authorship of articles across fields over the last 100+ years. A good write-up and a great interactive infographic are in the Chronicle.

• Researchers submitted applications to professors in biology, chemistry, and physics departments with the maleness/femaleness of applicants’ names randomly varied. Male names were viewed more favorably and offered salaries an average of $4,000 higher.