Gender, discipline, and scientific productivity: the case of Israeli doctoral students

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study gender differentials in scientific productivity while looking at academic discipline and advisor practices. The natural sciences and the liberal arts are shown to constitute two organisational cultures which affect the ability of women to attain excellence on a par with men.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study is based on a sample of 660 doctoral students in two universities in Israel. Regression procedures were employed to predict productivity.FindingsThere is a slight gender gap in scientific productivity, but only in single‐authored papers. This suggests that publishing together with an advisor – which is the common practice in the natural sciences – is more conducive to gender parity. Students' reports suggest that their advisors evince little differential treatment of men versus women, thereby ruling out the possibility of overt advisor bias against women. Overall, the natural sciences appear to be more supportive of students' success while the liberal arts seem to challenge students to struggle on their own, putting women in greater jeopardy of suffering family‐work tensions.Practical implicationsUniversities need to appreciate the disciplinary differences within them and help students to get greater support in the “natural selection” mechanisms that are often unconsciously employed in higher education.Originality/valueThis paper adds an important angle in appreciating currently dominant approaches to work‐family balances while focusing on unintended exclusionary mechanisms embedded in the standards and culture of different scientific disciplines.