A manuscript appearing in the July 10, 2018 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) reports evidence for a gender bias in how individuals speak about profession- als. When discussing professionals or their work, it is common to refer to them by surname alone (e.g., “Darwin developed the theory of evolution”). Evidence indicates that individuals are more likely to refer to male than female professionals in this way. This gender bias emerges in archival data across domains. For example, students reviewing professors online and pundits discussing politicians on the radio are more likely to use a surname when speaking about a man (vs. a woman).
Gender inequality persists in many professions, particularly in high-status fields, such as science, technol- ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Potentially contributing to this unequal state is gender bias in implicit and explicit forms. This particular PNAS article offers evidence of a form of gender bias that manifests in the way that individuals refer to professionals when speaking about them and identifies the consequences of this bias. Men and women were, on average across studies, more than twice as likely to describe a male (vs. female) professional by surname in domains, such as science, literature, and politics. This simple difference in reference affects judgments of eminence, with participants judging those professionals described by surname as more eminent and 14% more deserving of honors, such as a National Science Foundation Career Award. This gender bias may contribute to the gender gap in perceived eminence as well as in actual recognition and partially may explain the persistent state of women’s underrepresentation in high-status fields, including STEM.
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