The reverse engagement gap: gender differences in external engagement among UK academics

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics by gender.

	Full sample (12,260)					Matched sample
			Men 7399	Women 4861		Men 2406	Women 2406
	mean	sd	mean	mean		mean	mean
Professor	0.245	0.430	0.298	0.164	***	0.168	0.168
Senior lecturer/Reader	0.329	0.470	0.322	0.342	**	0.327	0.327
Lecturer	0.202	0.402	0.186	0.228	***	0.186	0.186
Post-doc	0.223	0.417	0.195	0.268	***	0.319	0.319
Social sciences	0.242	0.428	0.222	0.273	***	0.235	0.235
Life sciences, health	0.366	0.482	0.319	0.438	***	0.477	0.477
Arts and humanities	0.124	0.329	0.109	0.147	***	0.108	0.108
STEM	0.268	0.443	0.351	0.142	***	0.180	0.180
Age under 40	0.334	0.471	0.313	0.365	***	0.404	0.401
Age 40–49	0.290	0.454	0.272	0.319	***	0.300	0.300
Age 50 and over	0.376	0.484	0.416	0.317	***	0.296	0.298
Foreign-born (0/1)	0.381	0.486	0.379	0.384		0.413	0.410
Research time spent on (in %):
Basic research	32.340	35.184	34.846	28.526	***	32.514	30.093	**
Applied research	40.368	35.856	37.543	44.668	***	41.019	42.613
UKRI PI funding (0/1)	0.137	0.344	0.158	0.107	***	0.119	0.122
# publications (2009-12)	8.089	15.385	9.915	5.308	***	5.833	6.231
Avg. # citations (2009-12)	16.029	26.272	16.803	14.852	***	17.442	17.302
Avg. # coauthors (2009-12)	4.248	7.757	4.518	3.837	***	4.252	4.563

Note: *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001; Co-author number capped at 100.

Table 2. Academic engagement by gender, before and after matching.

	(1) Predictive margins before matching^a			(2) ATT after matching^b
	Women	Men		Women	Men
Sector of engagement
Private sector	0.300	0.323	***	0.259	0.287	*
Public sector	0.364	0.339	***	0.354	0.333
Third sector	0.449	0.359	***	0.448	0.351	***
AEI
Training	2.829	2.923		2.581	2.538
Meetings	6.387	6.650	**	5.901	6.337	*
Research	4.206	4.506	***	3.806	4.074
Commercialisation	0.642	0.939	***	0.486	0.743	***
Public engagement	3.074	3.027		2.780	2.758

Note: ***,**,* indicate a significance level of 1%, 5%, 10%.

^a Controlling for all covariates and university, discipline, seniority fixed effects.

^b ATT based on Lechner-adjusted standard errors (Lechner 2001).

Table 3. ATT by field of low vs high female representation by gender, after matching.

	(1) Low female representation^a			(2) High female representation^b
	Women	Men		Women	Men
Sector of engagement
Private sector	0.353	0.391		0.204	0.249
Public sector	0.241	0.192		0.468	0.465
Third sector	0.289	0.167	***	0.535	0.435	***
AEI
Training	2.132	2.078		3.152	2.836
Meetings	5.047	5.082		6.501	6.925
Research	4.889	5.220		3.747	4.265
Commercialisation	0.926	1.565	***	0.379	0.562	*
Public engagement	2.743	1.965	***	2.235	2.509

Note: ***,**,* indicate a significance level of 1%, 5% 10%. ATT based on Lechner-adjusted standard errors (Lechner 2001).

^a <30% women in the field (STEM).

^b >50% women in the field (e.g. psychiatry, nursing, languages, education).

Table 4. ATT by age group and gender, after matching.

	(1) Age < 40			(2) Age 40–49			(3) Age > 50
	Women	Men		Women	Men		Women	Men
Sector of engagement
Private sector	0.237	0.234		0.268	0.336	**	0.278	0.309
Public sector	0.247	0.256		0.362	0.376		0.492	0.395	***
Third sector	0.368	0.287	***	0.470	0.369	***	0.535	0.418	***
AEI
Training	1.722	1.807		2.642	2.81		3.675	3.246
Meetings	4.082	4.686	**	6.148	6.854	*	8.097	8.037
Research	2.965	3.361	*	3.863	4.213		4.877	4.893
Commercialisation	0.464	0.722	**	0.497	0.659		0.504	0.855	***
Public engagement	2.184	2.068		3.302	2.939		3.054	3.504

Note: ***,**,* indicate a significance level of 1%, 5% 10%. ATT based on Lechner-adjusted standard errors (Lechner 2001). Age is age of women; difference is estimated between matched pairs, even if men have different ages.

Table 5. Sector and channels of engagement by gender, after matching.

	Private sector			Public sector			Third sector
	Women	Men		Women	Men		Women	Men
AEI
Training	4.11	4.29		4.07	4.07		3.64	3.75
Meetings	8.38	9.35	**	9.21	9.29		8.07	9.30	*
Research	5.96	6.04		5.57	5.47	*	4.84	5.21
Commercialisation	1.04	1.55	***	0.59	0.89		0.62	0.81
Public engagement	3.63	3.71		3.64	4.01	*	4.12	5.10	***

Note: ***,**,* indicate a significance level of 1%, 5% 10%. Predicted AEI for engagement with different sectors by gender.

Table A1. Engagement activities.

Category	Engagement channels
Training	Company employee training
	Student placement
	Joint curriculum development
	Enterprise Education
	Social enterprise involvement
Meetings	Attending conferences
	Standard setting forums
	Participating in networks
	Sitting on advisory boards
	Giving invited lectures
	Consultancy services
	Informal advice
Research	Joint publications
	Hosting of personnel
	External secondment
	Joint research agreement
	Contract research
	Research consortia
Commercialisation	Setting up new physical facilities
	Prototyping and testing
	Taken out a patent
	Licensed research outputs to a company
	Formed a spin out company
	Formed or run a consultancy
Public engagement	Lectures for the community
	Performing arts and related cultural activities
	Museums and art galleries
	Heritage and tourism activities
	Public exhibitions
	Involvement with school projects

Note: The survey also asked about community sports which is not assigned to any category.

Lechner, M. 2001. “Identification and Estimation of Causal Effects of Multiple Treatments Under the Conditional Independence Assumption.” In Econometric Evaluation of Labour Market Policies, edited by M. Lechner and F. Pfeiffer, 43–58. Heidelberg: Physica.

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