The Matilda Effect in Science Communication: An Experiment on Gender Bias in Publication Quality Perceptions and Collaboration Interest

In science communication, the gender of an author as well as the gendered stereotypes assigned to their area of research impact the perceived scientific quality of their work: male scientists and “masculine” topics are frequently perceived as demonstrating higher scientific quality.

Introduction

Female researchers in STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) fields are underrepresented across the world, and one reason for this gap could be how other scientists perceive their work. Particularly, the gender of an author in a scientific field, as well as the topic of their research, could impact evaluations of the scientific quality of their research. While there are some observational studies of this pattern, no previous study has collected experimental evidence for how gender biases in science affect science communication(e.g. the quality of conference presentations and academic papers) among academic peers.

This study proposes an extension of the “Matilda effect”—the consistent under-recognition of female scientists—to science communication due to incongruities between gender roles and the scientist role. Specifically, more feminine stereotyped traits (empathy, communication) might be associated with success in professions such as human resources and social work whereas more masculine stereotyped traits (objectivity, ability to organize) are expected to align with professions in science and leadership roles. Here, the authors suggest this gender role incongruity will affect assessments of scientific quality and interest in collaboration. Presenting otherwise identical scientific research, they test the hypothesis that men’s scholarly work is associated with higher scientific quality than women’s work in the same field, and that men are more attractive for scholarly exchange than women.

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