Abstract
ABSTRACT This article provides an explanation for previously observed gender differences in scientific performance during doctoral studies and the early career. Data is based on doctoral students in science, technology, and medicine at a Swedish university. We collected information on each doctoral student's publication and employment history. We also created publication histories for the doctoral candidates main supervisors. The data was supplemented with information on gender, age, and research area. Informed by theories on academic socialization, our research questions focus on how gender differences in productivity during doctoral studies and the early career relate to research collaboration and behaviour/characteristics of the main supervisor. Results show that the gender gap in productivity during doctoral studies, and the early career, can be explained by the degree to which the doctoral students co-author publications with their main supervisors and the size of their collaborative networks.
Highlights
Persistent horizontal and vertical gender segregation in the higher education sector is concluded in a meta-analysis published by the European Commission (2012)
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the gender gap in productivity in the fields of science, technology and medicine – how it arises as early as during doctoral studies, and how it is reproduced in the early career phase – with a focus on research collaboration and supervisor behaviour
Size of gender differences in research performance during doctoral studies Since time for research during doctoral studies is fairly limited and the publication output of doctoral students is relatively small, we start with an analysis of the size and robustness of the gender difference in productivity during doctoral studies
Summary
Persistent horizontal and vertical gender segregation in the higher education sector is concluded in a meta-analysis published by the European Commission (2012). Political initiatives to decrease gender segregation in the higher education sector focus mainly on three issues: decreasing gender segregation in educational choices, increasing the share of women who choose science as their vocation, and improving career prospects for women who have chosen science as their vocation. There is less cross-country variation as concerns the issue of career advancement for women in the higher education system, and the patterns are strikingly similar in each country. This is true for the Nordic countries, which are those with the highest levels of gender equality
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