A recent study published in Science suggests women tend to pursue careers in which hard work is thought to be more important than innate talent. The authors conclude that this an important cause of the continuing gender disparity in a variety of academic fields, not just in STEM disciplines. Sarah-Jane Leslie, a co-author of the study and philosopher at Princeton, notes that longstanding cultural stereotypes portray men as more talented than women, which discourages women from pursuing PhDs in certain fields. The study also finds that African Americans are underrepresented in many academic disciplines for similar reasons.
A few influential women scientists of the twentieth century (left to right): Marie Curie, Lisa Meitner, Emmy Noether
The researchers surveyed 1,820 academics across nine universities and compared the survey results with the distribution of PhDs earned in 2011. Success in math, music, and philosophy was most perceived to depend on talent, and these disciplines had the lowest percentages of female PhDs. On the other hand, educators, success in psychology and neuroscience was least perceived to depend on talent, and these fields had the highest proportion of female PhDs . Other factors, such as hours worked, selectivity, and (what is empathetic vs abstract thinking) were found not to predict the observed race and gender disparities.
Nevertheless, outside researchers have urged scientists to take the study’s results with caution. Giles Hooker, a Cornell statistician, noted the 6.5% response rate for the study’s survey of academics. In addition, the study’s authors selected the nine universities they felt represented the major American institutions responsible for the majority of PhDs, rather than having a random selection of universities. The authors themselves noted that other hypotheses could also contribute to the uneven gender ratios, but emphasized that recruiters should change their presentation of their fields to women in order to increase gender diversity.
Furthermore, Cassidy Sugimoto, an information scientist at Indiana University-Bloomington, noted possible ambiguity in the phrasing of the questions. For example, the scientists in the survey likely interpreted ‘talent’ in a variety of ways, so their opinions on the importance of empathetic versus abstract reasoning may have affected their response to the significance of natural talent in their fields.
Women have been making progress in academia recently. In the past few decades, the proportion of women receiving doctorates has grown from 11% in 1970 to 40% in 2010. In addition, women currently make up half of all newly graduated math and science doctorates in the US.
Retention of female and African American academics remains a significant problem. Despite the growing numbers of women doctorates, relatively few women hold higher level academic positions.
Sources:
1. Deng, B. (2015). Hidden hurdle for women in science. Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.16727
2. Leslie, S.-J., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M. & Freeland, E. Science 347, 262–265 (2015).
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