In a piece for Slate, Jane Hu examines a new study that finds that elite male faculty members in the life sciences tend to hire fewer women than their female counterparts. “Fifty-two percent of biology Ph.D.s are women, but their representation shrinks to 39 percent at the postdoc level, and only 18 percent at the tenured professor level,” Hu reports.
Nature reporter Elizabeth Gibney examines a new study that highlights gender bias in elite research labs. “We do think that maybe this shows the need for elite faculty members to make a stronger, more proactive effort to reach out to talented women,” says graduate student Jason Sheltzer.
“The study suggests that when female trainees are shut out of the top labs, they don’t get access to the resources, networking, and other opportunities that are critical to advancing their careers in academic science,” The Chronicle of Higher Education writes of a new study on gender bias in elite research labs.
“Of particular concern, men who have achieved elite status by virtue of awards they have won -- in other words, the men whose labs may be the best launching pads for careers -- are the least likely to hire women who are grad students and postdocs,” writes Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed.
Carolyn Johnson writes for The Boston Globe about research by graduate student Jason Sheltzer that indicates that male professors are less likely to employ females at top U.S. research institutions. “[M]ale professors employed 11 percent fewer female graduate students and 22 percent fewer female postdoctoral researchers than do women professors," writes Johnson.
Professor Emerita Lotte Bailyn writes in this WBUR op-ed about the importance of paternity leave for advancing gender equality in the work place. “From a marriage and work perspective, paternity leave creates a pattern of shared care between two parents right off the bat,” writes Bailyn.
Professor David Autor speaks with NPR’s Tom Ashbrook about the achievement gap between boys and girls in the classroom and what this may mean for the future of the American workforce.
“A series of three studies reveals that investors prefer pitches from male entrepreneurs over those from female entrepreneurs, even when the content of the pitches is identical,” writes Carmen Nobel of Forbes on the findings of a new paper co-authored by Professor Fiona Murray.
NPR’s All Tech Considered looks at new research from MIT Professor Fiona Murray that indicates attractive males are more likely to receive funding for their startups than females.
Guardian reporter Holly Welham writes that MIT researchers “found that male entrepreneurs were 60% more likely than women to succeed and that physical attractiveness produced a 36% increase in pitch success.”