From the RSPE Equity and Access Committee

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol43 Issue30 14–18 August 2017

DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE: Committees, candidates, and gender

Science, Vol. 356, Issue 6337, pp. 498-499, 2017

Quotas to increase female representation on academic evaluation committees may unexpectedly hamper efforts to narrow gender gaps in the professoriate. Bagues et al.studied large-scale national evaluation programs for hiring and promotion in Italy and Spain, which use committees drawn randomly from pools of experts. Although female committee members show no greater statistical preference than males for female candidates, female presence on committees leads male committee members to be less favorable toward female candidates. Higher proportions of women on committees do not increase the number of female candidates promoted, nor do they lead to better identification of candidates who ultimately prove to be more productive.

For more information, please see: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6337/498.6