Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students
Abstract Resource allocation in academia is highly skewed, and peer evaluation is the main method used to distribute scarce resources. A large literature documents gender inequality in evaluation, and the explanation for this inequality is homophily: male evaluators give more favorable ratings to ma...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46375-7 |
| _version_ | 1797415480464506880 |
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| author | Thijs Bol |
| author_facet | Thijs Bol |
| author_sort | Thijs Bol |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Resource allocation in academia is highly skewed, and peer evaluation is the main method used to distribute scarce resources. A large literature documents gender inequality in evaluation, and the explanation for this inequality is homophily: male evaluators give more favorable ratings to male candidates. We investigate this by focusing on cum laude distinctions for PhD students in the Netherlands, a distinction that is only awarded to 5 percent of all dissertations and has as its sole goal to distinguish the top from the rest. Using data from over 5000 PhD recipients of a large Dutch university for the period 2011–2021, we find that female PhD students were almost two times less likely to get a cum laude distinction than their male counterparts, even when they had the same doctoral advisor. This gender gap is largest when dissertations are evaluated by all-male committees and decreases as evaluation committees include more female members. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:49:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-853f4d206d4f4fac990fb5114747d00a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:49:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-853f4d206d4f4fac990fb5114747d00a2023-12-03T12:18:49ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-11-011311910.1038/s41598-023-46375-7Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD studentsThijs Bol0Department of Sociology, University of AmsterdamAbstract Resource allocation in academia is highly skewed, and peer evaluation is the main method used to distribute scarce resources. A large literature documents gender inequality in evaluation, and the explanation for this inequality is homophily: male evaluators give more favorable ratings to male candidates. We investigate this by focusing on cum laude distinctions for PhD students in the Netherlands, a distinction that is only awarded to 5 percent of all dissertations and has as its sole goal to distinguish the top from the rest. Using data from over 5000 PhD recipients of a large Dutch university for the period 2011–2021, we find that female PhD students were almost two times less likely to get a cum laude distinction than their male counterparts, even when they had the same doctoral advisor. This gender gap is largest when dissertations are evaluated by all-male committees and decreases as evaluation committees include more female members.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46375-7 |
| spellingShingle | Thijs Bol Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students Scientific Reports |
| title | Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students |
| title_full | Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students |
| title_fullStr | Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students |
| title_short | Gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for PhD students |
| title_sort | gender inequality in cum laude distinctions for phd students |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-46375-7 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thijsbol genderinequalityincumlaudedistinctionsforphdstudents |