WOMEN IN SCIENCE. Comment on "Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines"

Donna K Ginther; Shulamit Kahn

doi:10.1126/science.aaa9632

WOMEN IN SCIENCE. Comment on "Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines"

Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):391. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9632. Epub 2015 Jul 23.

Authors

Donna K Ginther¹, Shulamit Kahn²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics, Center for Science, Technology and Economic Policy, Institute for Policy and Social Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. dginther@ku.edu.
² Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

Abstract

Leslie et al. (Reports, 16 January 2015, p. 262) concluded that "expectations of brilliance" explained the gender makeup of academic disciplines. We reestimated their models after adding measures of disaggregated Graduate Record Examination scores by field. Our results indicated that female representation among Ph.D. recipients is associated with the field's mathematical content and that faculty beliefs about innate ability were irrelevant.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Comment

MeSH terms

Aptitude*
Attitude*
Female
Humans
Intelligence*
Male
Natural Science Disciplines*
Sexism*
Social Sciences*
Workforce

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding