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The gender gap in early career transitions in the life sciences

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  • Lerchenmueller, Marc J.
  • Sorenson, Olav

Abstract

We examined the extent to which and why early career transitions have led to women being underrepresented among faculty in the life sciences. We followed the careers of 6,336 scientists from the post-doctoral fellowship stage to becoming a principal investigator (PI) – a critical transition in the academic life sciences. Using a unique dataset that connects individuals’ National Institutes of Health funding histories to their publication records, we found that a large portion of the overall gender gap in the life sciences emerges at this transition. Women become PIs at a 20% lower rate than men. Differences in “productivity” (publication records) can explain about 60% of this differential. The remaining portion appears to stem from gender differences in the returns to similar publication records, with women receiving less credit for their citations.

Suggested Citation

  • Lerchenmueller, Marc J. & Sorenson, Olav, 2018. "The gender gap in early career transitions in the life sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1007-1017.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:6:p:1007-1017
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2018.02.009
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    Cited by:

    1. Lawson, Cornelia & Geuna, Aldo & Finardi, Ugo, 2021. "The funding-productivity-gender nexus in science, a multistage analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(3).
    2. Graddy-Reed, Alexandra & Lanahan, Lauren & Eyer, Jonathan, 2019. "Gender discrepancies in publication productivity of high-performing life science graduate students," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    3. Kim, Lanu & Smith, Daniel Scott & Hofstra, Bas & McFarland, Daniel A., 2022. "Gendered knowledge in fields and academic careers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    4. Schmal, W. Benedikt & Haucap, Justus & Knoke, Leon, 2023. "The role of gender and coauthors in academic publication behavior," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    5. Mancuso, Raffaele & Rossi-Lamastra, Cristina & Franzoni, Chiara, 2023. "Topic choice, gendered language, and the under-funding of female scholars in mission-oriented research," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    6. Rossello, Giulia & Cowan, Robin & Mairesse, Jacques, 2020. "Ph.D. research output in STEM: the role of gender and race in supervision," MERIT Working Papers 2020-021, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Leo Schmallenbach & Till W. Bärnighausen & Marc J. Lerchenmueller, 2024. "The global geography of artificial intelligence in life science research," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Annika Rickne & Martin Ruef & Karl Wennberg, 2018. "The socially and spatially bounded relationships of entrepreneurial activity: Olav Sorenson—recipient of the 2018 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 515-525, October.
    9. Stefano Bianchini & Patrick Llerena & Sıla Öcalan-Özel & Emre Özel, 2022. "Gender diversity of research consortia contributes to funding decisions in a multi-stage grant peer-review process," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Julian Kolev & Yuly Fuentes-Medel & Fiona Murray, 2019. "Is Blinded Review Enough? How Gendered Outcomes Arise Even Under Anonymous Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 25759, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Walters, Cyrill & Mehl, Graeme G. & Piraino, Patrizio & Jansen, Jonathan D. & Kriger, Samantha, 2022. "The impact of the pandemic-enforced lockdown on the scholarly productivity of women academics in South Africa," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    12. Steven T. Joanis & Vivek H. Patil, 2022. "First-author gender differentials in business journal publishing: top journals versus the rest," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(2), pages 733-761, February.
    13. Auschra, Carolin & Bartosch, Julia & Lohmeyer, Nora, 2022. "Differences in female representation in leading management and organization journals: Establishing a benchmark," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(3).
    14. Yongchao Ma & Ying Teng & Zhongzhun Deng & Li Liu & Yi Zhang, 2023. "Does writing style affect gender differences in the research performance of articles?: An empirical study of BERT-based textual sentiment analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2105-2143, April.
    15. Madsen, Emil Bargmann & Aagaard, Kaare, 2020. "Concentration of Danish research funding on individual researchers and research topics: Patterns and potential drivers," SocArXiv j874c, Center for Open Science.
    16. Nikola Komlenac & Lisa Stockinger & Margarethe Hochleitner, 2022. "Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors Moderate Associations between Work Stress and Exhaustion: Testing the Job Demands–Resources Model in Academic Staff at an Austrian Medical University," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-20, May.
    17. Lawson, Cornelia & Geuna, Aldo & Finardi, Ugo, 2019. "Nurturing knowledge? The impact of funding and family on scientific performance," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio 201902, University of Turin.
    18. Wullum Nielsen, Mathias & Börjeson, Love, 2019. "Gender diversity in the management field: Does it matter for research outcomes?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1617-1632.
    19. Natalia Restrepo & Alfonso Unceta & Xabier Barandiaran, 2021. "Gender Diversity in Research and Innovation Projects: The Proportion of Women in the Context of Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, May.
    20. Lutter, Mark & Habicht, Isabel M. & Schröder, Martin, 2022. "Gender differences in the determinants of becoming a professor in Germany. An event history analysis of academic psychologists from 1980 to 2019," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    21. Emre Özel, 2024. "What is Gender Bias in Grant Peer review?," Working Papers halshs-03862027, HAL.
    22. José Garcia Montalvo & Daniele Alimonti & Sonja Reiland & Isabelle Vernos, 2020. "Gender stereotype and the scientific career of women: Evidence from biomedical research genters," Economics Working Papers 1750, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    23. Sebastian Hoenen & Christos Kolympiris, 2020. "The Value of Insiders as Mentors: Evidence from the Effects of NSF Rotators on Early-Career Scientists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(5), pages 852-866, December.
    24. Mingting Kou & Yi Zhang & Yu Zhang & Kaihua Chen & Jiancheng Guan & Senmao Xia, 2020. "Does gender structure influence R&D efficiency? A regional perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 477-501, January.
    25. José García-Montalvo & Daniele Alimonti & Sonja Reiland & Isabelle Vernos, 2020. "Gender Stereotype and the Scientific Career of Women: Evidence from Biomedical Research Centers," Working Papers 1212, Barcelona School of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Science careers; Gender gap; Productivity paradox; Differential returns; National Institutes of Health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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