A new study from researchers at the University of Texas Austin has found that when asked to recall experts in their field, male psychology scholars were less likely to think of a woman peer. The researchers believe this may explain the current citation gap in psychology, where women only represent about 30 percent of citations, even though they represent about 66 percent of faculty in the field.
To conduct their study, the research team surveyed psychology faculty members at R1 institutions in the United States and asked them to list up to five peers they considered experts in the psychology field. The results found women who were senior faculty members listed women peers at a rate similar to the proportion of women in the field, wheres male senior faculty members’ recall of women was lower than this baseline. With more junior faculty members, women overrepresented and men underrepresented women in their lists. For all faculty, male names were more likely to be listed earlier in men’s responses, whereas women’s responses showed no significant difference in the order they listed women versus men.
The research team believes their findings shed light on not only the citation gap in psychology, but the lingering bias that men are more likely to be recognized as excellent and that their research is considered more important than research from women scholars.