A recent study by Yale University deepens concerns of the academic community — including UNC-CH professors — that gender inequality remains a problem in science fields.
The study html, released last week, emphasized the need to address subconscious stereotypes that affect the employment of female scientists.
Researchers at Yale divided 127 professors from universities nationwide into two groups to review identical applications that had been randomly assigned names — one group received female applicants and the other males.
But the male applicants received higher competency scores and would have received more job offerings, less mentoring time and average salaries almost $4,000 higher than their female counterparts.
Not only did professors of all ages and fields of study rate the male applicant higher — so did professors of both genders.
“The fact that both male and female faculty showed the effect gets to the fact that these are very pervasive and common stereotypes about who is the best scientist,” said Corinne Moss-Racusin, a social psychology professor at Yale and coauthor of the study.
William Kier, chairman of the UNC-CH biology department, said gender equality is a common worry in science departments.
He said female professors would not compose even half of the biology department unless the University hired only females from now until 2023, according to a model developed by the department.
“The whole issue of ensuring we have a faculty that represents our students is very difficult,” Kier said. “Recent literature suggests that female associate professors tend to be associate professors significantly longer than males.”
