Work by female scientists gets judged more harshly [View all]

[eridani]

http://www.health24.com/Lifestyle/Woman/News/Work-by-female-scientists-gets-judged-more-harshly-20130422

Gender plays a role in how researchers perceive the work of other scientists, according to a new study.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that scientific studies written by men were viewed as higher quality than identical studies listing female authors. This gender bias, they noted, is significant and will have important implications over the course of a woman's career in science.

"In grant proposals, promotion and tenure reviews, hiring decisions and so on, a scholar's sex will be a relevant factor in how she or he is evaluated," study lead author Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, associate professor of communication at The Ohio State University, said in a university news release. "All of these small factors will add up over the course of a career and may prevent some women from reaching the same career heights as men."

The study was published online recently in the journal Science Communication

In conducting the study, the researchers asked nearly 250 graduate students in communication from universities around the United States to read and evaluate 15 short summaries, or abstracts, of studies presented at an academic conference. Some of the studies listed two male authors, while others listed two female authors.

The researchers also rotated the authors listed on the studies. As a result, some participants thought certain studies were authored by men, while others thought they were written by women.