Gender Bias Against Women in Science Executive Summary
use the interviews of women of color in science and a survey that quantifies the experiences of White, Black, Asian-Americans, and Latina women in STEM fields to document the little-explored differences between the experiences of White women and women of color, and between different groups of women of color. Respondents for both studies were recruited through the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) by sending emails to AWIS members. Sixty women participated in the interview study: twenty each of Latinas, Asian-Americans, and Black women. Erika Hall, then a graduate student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business and now an Assistant Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, conducted the interviews. Five-hundred and fifty-seven scientists responded to the online survey. Our data suggest that gender bias is commonplace in science: 1. Prove-It-Again. Roughly two-thirds of both the women interviewed (66.7%) and those surveyed (63.9%) reported Prove-It-Again bias. 2. Tightrope. About three-fourths (76.3%) of the scientists interviewed reported Tightrope bias. The survey measured different types of Tightrope bias and found that: a. About one-third (34.1%) of the scientists reported pressures to take on dead-end traditionally feminine roles. b. About one-half reported backlash for stereotypically masculine behaviors such as assertiveness (53.0%) and expressing anger (52.3%). Over one-third (38.2%) reported backlash for self-promotion. 3. Maternal wall. In interviews, nearly two-thirds (64.0%) of scientists with children reported maternal wall bias, including the flexibility stigma (Williams, Blair-Loy, & Berdahl, 2013) when women took parental leave or stopped the tenure clock. Women scientists without children also report being disadvantaged in various ways, notably when they are expected to work longer hours to make up for the schedules of colleagues who do have children. Motherhood appears to be a no-win proposition for many women in STEM.
4. Tug of War. Over one-half (55.3%) of scientists interviewed reported Tug of War patterns. Although three-quarters (75.5%) of those surveyed reported that their female colleagues supported each other, several Tug of War patterns emerged. About onehalf (51.4%) of the scientists surveyed felt that “some women [scientists] have ‘just turned into men,’” while 41.7% agreed with the statement that “some women just don’t understand the level of commitment it takes to be a scientist.” 5. Sexual harassment. Over one-third (34.5%) of those surveyed reported sexual harassment. In addition to these findings, our studies began to document how the experience of gender bias differs for women of different racial groups. Some major findings: 1. Prove-It-Again is more common for Black women than for the other three groups of women: Black women (76.9%) were more likely than other women to report having to provide more evidence of competence than others to prove themselves to colleagues (Latinas: 64.5%; Asian-Americans: 63.6%; White women: 62.7%). 2. The stereotype that Asians are good at science appears to help Asian-American women with students—but not colleagues. The stereotype of Asian-Americans as “good at science” did not appear to help the scientists surveyed establish their competence with colleagues: they reported more “Prove-It-Again” bias (63.6%) than White women did (62.7%) when it came to establishing their competence with colleagues. Interviews confirmed that Asian-American women’s experiences were shaped far more by the negative stereotype that women are not good at science than the positive stereotype that Asians are. This finding raises the empirical question of whether the stereotype of Asians as technically competent (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) benefits Asian-American men more than Asian-American women. On the other hand, Asian-American women scientists reported less Prove-It-Again bias from students (31.7%), as compared with the other three groups of women (Black women: 56.5%; Latinas: 50.0%; White women: 43.3%). 3. Asian-American scientists were more likely than other women to report workplace pressures to
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