The impact of gender on researchers’ assessment: A randomized controlled trial

Marina Christ Franco,Lucas Helal,Maximiliano Sérgio Cenci,David Moher

doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.05.026

Marina Christ Franco, Lucas Helal + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2021.05.026

Copy DOI

Abstract

ObjectivesThis randomized controlled trial aimed to test whether women or men would be preferred with identical curriculum vitae (CV); and the impact of the career stage in the evaluators’ choice. Study Design and SettingA simulated post-doctoral process was carried forward to be assessed for judgment. Level 1 and 2 Brazilian fellow researchers in the field of Dentistry were invited to act as external reviewers in a post-doctoral process and were randomly assigned to receive a CV from a woman or a man. They were required to rate the CV from 0 to 10 in scientific contribution, leadership potential, ability to work in groups, and international experience. ResultsFor all categories of CVs evaluated, CVs from men received higher scores compared to the CVs from women. Robust variance Poisson regressions demonstrated that men were more likely to receive higher scores in all categories, despite applicants’ career stage. For example, CVs from men were nearly three quarters more likely to be seen as having leadership potential than equivalent CVs from women. ConclusionGender bias is powerfully prevalent in academia in the dentistry field, despite researchers' career stage. Actions like implicit bias training must be urgently implemented to avoid (or at least decrease) that more women are harmed.

Highlights

Women remain underrepresented in Dentistry in academia, and this gap is widened whenever each career step is progressed.[1, 2] Recent evidence showed that in the United States, for example, almost half of the graduates from dental schools were women, whereas only 22% of the faculty were women.[1]
We developed a randomized controlled trial to test whether women or men would be preferred with identical curriculum vitae (CV); and the impact of the career stage in the evaluators’ choice
Step forward robust variances Poisson regressions with log links were undertaken to estimate associations of exposure variables of interest to dependent variables - scientific contribution, leadership potential, ability to work in groups, and international insertion), both adjusted for CV gender and career stage and non-adjusted

Summary

Introduction

Women remain underrepresented in Dentistry in academia, and this gap is widened whenever each career step is progressed.[1, 2] Recent evidence showed that in the United States, for example, almost half of the graduates from dental schools were women, whereas only 22% of the faculty were women.[1]. Women's lower performance can be connected to many underlying challenges they face, such as family and societal pressures, childcare responsibilities, among others.[1, 4] Another potential reason for lower professional performance can be the unconscious use of more modest speech by women, leading to a diminished chance of having an article written by women accepted in a peer-reviewed journal.[4, 5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion