Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Gender In Evaluations of Scientific Competence

亚利桑那州大学劳拉·亨特为什么尽管在许多领域取得了显著的成就，但女性在科学领域的代表性仍然明显不足？对能力的偏见评估可能是部分原因。本论文的研究将检验性别是否影响自我和他人对科学能力的评价。正如妇女的能力在其他领域被低估一样，她们在科学领域也可能被低估，从而促进在评估男子和妇女的能力时使用双重标准。为了验证这一假设，联合PI将设计并执行两个实验。这两个实验都将调查三个自然科学领域--生物、化学和物理--的过程，因为这些领域在可能与能力评估相关的方式上存在差异，例如所需的技能和性别融合的程度。因此，结果将适用于多个科学领域。首先，基于实验室的实验将评估自我评估中的偏见，并将依赖于大学生(作为潜在科学家)作为受试者。第二个以调查为基础的实验将评估其他人评估中的偏见，并将依赖于工作中的科学家作为受访者。参与的科学家将评估一名假想的初级科学家(随机分配为男性或女性)的简历和研究提案，并表明他们是否会推荐聘用这名假想的科学家。这两个实验都将依赖于状态特征理论，并将测试最近提出的对该理论范围的扩展。总而言之，这些实验将允许研究人员在自我评估和他人评估中谈论性别的相关性。因此，这将是对有偏见的评估在产生和延续科学中的性别不平等方面所起作用的一个特别有力的考验。通过测试一种潜在的重要机制“有偏见的评估”，这项拟议的研究将促进我们对为什么女性和男性在不同程度上追求、坚持和成功科学的理解。此外，实验设计的严格控制性质将允许能力评估从其他潜在机制中分离出来，例如对科学的态度和个人偏好，从而允许研究人员在相互竞争的解释之间做出裁决。这项研究的一个主要目标是帮助制定一个更连贯的框架，以了解在科学上产生性别不平等的机制。更广泛的影响这项研究还潜在地具有广泛的政策和教育意义。如果研究发现，假设由男性撰写的同一项研究提案得到了更好的评价，那么审查拨款和奖学金提案(甚至是非盲文手稿)的程序可能应该修改。如果让女学生熟悉一位著名的女科学家会增加她们对自己科学能力的评估，那么女科学家的成就或许应该在科学教育中得到突出。这两项努力最终都可能有助于限制对科学的偏见评价。

SES-0926505Erin LeaheyLaura HunterUniversity of ArizonaWhy, despite remarkable gains in many fields, are women still noticeably underrepresented in scientific fields? Biased assessments of competence may be partly responsible. This dissertation research will test whether gender affects evaluations of scientific competence, by both self and others. Just as women's capabilities are underestimated in other realms, they may also be underestimated in science, thereby promoting the use of double standards when evaluating men's and women's competence. To test this hypothesis, the co-PI will design and execute two experiments. Both experiments will investigate processes in three natural science fields -- biology, chemistry, and physics -- because these fields differ in ways likely relevant to assessments of competence, such as required skills and degree of gender integration. Thus, the results will be applicable to multiple scientific fields. The first, laboratory-based experiment will assess bias in self-assessments, and will rely on college students (as potential scientists) for subjects. The second, survey-based experiment will assess bias in the assessments of others, and will rely on working scientists as respondents. Participating scientists will evaluate the curricula vitae and a research proposal of a hypothetical junior scientist (randomly assigned to be either male or female) and indicate whether they would recommend the hypothetical scientist for hire. Both experiments will rely on status characteristic theory and will test recently proposed extensions of the theory's scope. Together, the experiments will allow the researcher to speak to the relevance of gender in both self-assessments and assessments by others. As such, it will be a particularly strong test of the role of biased assessments in producing and perpetuating gender inequality in science. By testing a potentially important mechanism "biased assessments" the proposed research will advance our understanding of why women and men pursue, persist, and succeed in science to different degrees. Furthermore, the tightly controlled nature of the experimental design will permit a disentangling of competence assessments from other potential mechanisms, such as attitudes toward science and individual preferences, thereby allowing the researcher to adjudicate between competing explanations. A primary goal of this research is to contribute to the development of a more coherent framework for understanding the mechanisms that produce gender inequality in science. Broader ImpactThe research also has potentially broad policy and educational implications. If the research finds that the same research proposal is evaluated more favorably when it is assumed to be written by a man, the procedures for reviewing grant and fellowship proposals (and even non-blinded manuscripts) should perhaps be revised. If familiarizing female students with a renowned female scientist increases their assessment of their own scientific ability, the accomplishments of female scientists should perhaps be highlighted in science education. Both of these efforts may ultimately help limit biased evaluations in science.