Sex differences in the number of scientific publications and citations when attaining the rank of professor in Sweden

ABSTRACT

The proportion of women tends to decrease the higher the academic rank, following a global pattern. Sweden has taken comprehensive measures to decrease this gap across 30 years, and many countries are following a similar path. Yet today only 27% of faculty with the rank of professor in Sweden are female. A common explanation is that academia is biased against women. According to this hypothesis, women have to reach higher levels of scholarly achievement than men to be appointed to the same academic rank. Publication metrics when attaining the rank of professor were compiled from the Web of Science for samples of the whole population of 1345 professors appointed at the six largest universities in Sweden during a six-year period. Men had significantly more publications and citations in both medicine and in the social sciences, rejecting the hypothesis that women are held to a higher scholarly standard in this context.

KEYWORDS:

• Academia
• professor
• sex bias
• sex quotas
• bibliometrics
• patriarchy

Acknowledgements

Many scholars have helped improve the presentation of this study. We thank two anonymous reviewers who have given constructive comments on a previous version of this manuscript. For giving generously of their time to comment, we are likewise indebted to Edward Dutton, Michael Gruber, Bo Molander, Erik J. Olsson, Roland S. Persson, Charlotta Stern, Anders E. af Wåhlberg, and two scholars who wish to remain anonymous. The reason that this article is published more than three years since the data collection is the cumulative duration of the review process, at it has been rejected by six journals before it was submitted to Studies in Higher Education. Five of them eventually rejected it without review, stating that it was inappropriate for, or outside the scope of, the journal. One journal rejected it after a first round of reviews, where each of reviewers 1–4 provided increasingly negative and unspecific comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Our translation. The original text reads

Trots att Sverige är världsledande när det gäller andelen kvinnor på arbetsmarknaden, och trots att 60 procent av studenterna länge varit kvinnor, är fortfarande tre av fyra professorer män. Vi måste ha högre ambitioner än så. I den svenska högskolan ska kvinnor och män kunna verka på lika villkor och med samma möjligheter till karriär. Alltför ofta har föreställningar om manliga genier fått gå före kompetens i högskolan och alltför ofta har internrekrytering och nätverk fått spela större roll än hårt arbete. Det är i längden skadligt för kvaliteten på svensk forskning.

2 ‘The term “gender” is often reserved for societal manifestations of being male or female – the roles people play  …  I use “sex” as the more inclusive term  …  “gender” is most commonly used to refer to the psychological aspects of rearing  …  the way your parents and other socializing agents treated you based on your sex when you were growing up … ’ (Halpern 2012, 160–161).

3 For examples, see https://lu.prodwebb.lu.se/sites/www.lu.se/files/prof_inst_19_okt_2012.pdf https://issuu.com/uppsalauniversitet/docs/profinst-2015.

4 Our translation of ‘En aspekt på jämställdhetsfrågan låter sig beskrivas i rent numerära termer och gäller könsfördelningen bland forskarstuderande, lärare och forskare’.

5 In our translation, the original text reads ‘According to the decree (1992:1668) concerning official statistics (adjusted 1994:1108), should official statistics based on individuals be divided per sex, unless particular arguments speak against it’ 41.

6 In our translation, the original text reads ‘The process is repeated prior to each three-year period until both sexes’ proportion of the professors is at least 40%’ 37.

7 In our translation, the original text reads

An amendment [to the legislation for higher education] should be made that clarifies that it is allowed to positively discriminate the underrepresented sex within the particular category of employees within the university or polytechnic, if the discrimination is a route to promote equality in work life, 40.

8 Nu höjer regeringen ambitionsnivån avsevärt för perioden 2017–2019. Nya rekryteringsmål för jämn könsfördelning bland nyrekryterade professorer skrivs in i de nya regleringsbreven for universitet och högskolor. I genomsnitt handlar det om en ökning om nio procentenheter per lärosäte for kommande målperiod. Dessutom har regeringen för första gången satt en nationell målbild: lika många kvinnor som män ska rekryteras som professorer senast år 2030.