Shift happens: The gender composition in clinical neuropsychology over five decades

Abstract

Objective

The current study utilizes five decades of data to demonstrate cohort differences in gender representation in governance, speaking at conferences, serving on editorial boards, and in scholarly productivity in clinical neuropsychology. Broadly examining gender disparities across domains of professional attainment helps illuminate the areas in which inequity in clinical neuropsychology is most pronounced and in need of ameliorative resources.

Methods

Data from 1967 to 2017 were coded from publicly available information from the four major professional associations for clinical neuropsychology in the U.S. (i.e. INS, AACN, NAN, & SCN). Gender differences were examined in (1) speaking at a national conference, (2) holding an office in a professional organization, (3) serving on the editorial team for a journal affiliated with a professional organization, and (4) scholarly activity as coded from Google Scholar.

Results

The percentage of men in the field significantly declined across time, whereas the percentage of women significantly increased; the number of women exceeded the number of men in approximately 1992. Gender differences in conference speakers, editorial board members, and research citations were greater in the earlier than in more recent cohorts of clinical neuropsychologists but gender inequity in conference speaking and editorial activities is evident in the most recent cohorts.

Discussion

Gender differences in conference speakers, editorial board members, and in earning research citations have diminished over time, but early career women still face disadvantages in speaking at conferences and serving on editorial boards. We provide strategies to increase and sustain women’s participation in leadership in neuropsychology.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• sex
• bias
• leadership
• neuropsychology

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Whereas points earned for president-elect, past president, and president may be confounded, not all persons served all three roles for idiosyncratic reasons.

2 We attempted to gather inter-rater reliability data for the sample, but due to the nature of these data it was not possible. Specifically, the citations used for the research domain were gathered at a specific point in time. A second coder attempted to replicate these data but did not begin the work until a year had passed since the first coder gathered the data. Thus, many subjects included in the database had increases in the number of citations and the h index. However, we were unable to determine, when differences in coding occurred whether the differences were the result of errors on the first coders part or due to actual additional citations to the published research. Such differences were not systematic and there was no way to easily reconstruct the original data for error checking.