“Streamlining for excellence discriminations against women”

The study “Streamlining for excellence discriminations against women” conducted by Polish scientists showed that in countries where researchers have to apply for a post-doctoral degree, the increase in scientific productivity is clearly weaker. This applies especially to women, whose scientific development is significantly weaker than in countries without habilitation.

Analysis of the careers of 2.7 million scientists from 45 countries by Dr. Hab. Natalia Letki from the University of Warsaw and Dr. hab. Piotr Sankowski, president of IDEAS NCBR, also associated with the University of Warsaw, together with Grzegorz Biały from IDEAS NCBR and Dawid Walentek from the University of Ghent, showed that while among men, work in a system requiring habilitation does not have a significant impact on scientific productivity, in the case of female researchers it is clear that this system significantly slows down their development compared to their colleagues from countries where there is no habilitation.

The study shows that women in systems with habilitation have a 30% lower employment rate after 15 years of career. weaker growth in scientific productivity than women in systems without habilitation. And by as much as 87% than men in systems with habilitation.

The authors of the analysis, citing existing research, list many factors that do not favor women’s scientific development, starting from their parental and caring responsibilities, through assigning them subservient tasks to male researchers, to discrimination at the stage of assessing their achievements. As a result, women publish less and in less prestigious publishing houses than men, their works are less often cited and more women than men leave science.

The study “Streamlining for excellence discriminates against women: A study of research productivity of 2.7 million scientists in 45 countries” is available at the link: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/yr8me