February 17, 2008
Social-Network Analysis Provides Insights About Women in Science
Boston — Women in science are often counseled to form networks of supporters to help them break through the glass ceiling blocking them from professional advancement. However, to date much of the evidence about how gender shapes scientists’ careers has been anecdotal or drawn from a few institutions.
Now, the base of empirical knowledge is about to expand, thanks to a new study described at the annual AAAS meeting here. For the first time, scholars have used the tool of social-network analysis to examine how a large, national sample of female and male scientists interact with professional colleagues and how this affects their careers. Some of the early results are intriguing.
For example, women and men both formed networks of approximately equal size of professional collaborators and confidantes, the study showed. But women were less likely than men to receive introductions from members of their networks to potential research collaborators, reported the study’s authors, Julia Melkers of Georgia Tech and Eric W. Welch of the University of Illinois at Chicago. They also found that women’s networks were more likely to contain people at other campuses and with greater seniority.
As a result, women scientists may be missing out on chatting informally and regularly with colleagues around the water cooler at their home institutions, ties that can be critical to establishing a research career, the authors said. These research partnerships are becoming ever more important as science increasingly becomes interdisciplinary and carried out by teams. Women might be disadvantaged in the tenure process because collaborations are also a way of establishing one’s credentials among colleagues within a department.
Ms. Melkers said that she and Mr. Welch have plenty of more work ahead to do additional analysis of these networks. They received 1,764 survey responses in 2006 from a sample drawn from female and male science-faculty members at 151 research universities in six disciplines: biological sciences; chemistry; computer science; earth and atmospheric sciences; electrical engineering; and physics. Respondents were asked to give detailed information about their professional colleagues, like their names and academic ranks, and the frequency of contacts. The project has been financed by the National Science Foundation.
Jeffrey Brainard | Posted on Sunday February 17, 2008 | Permalink
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