Gender Bias in Academic Recruitment? Experimental Evidence from the Nordic Region

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 12: Gender Inequality

Abstract

The persistence of gender disparities in top-level academic positions is striking, yet whether bias in recruitment plays a role in producing these disparities remains notoriously unclear. In this study, we have examined the role of bias in academic recruitment by conducting a survey experiment among faculty from universities in Norway, Sweden and Iceland (N=777). The faculty respondents rated CVs of hypothetical candidates – who were randomly assigned either a male or a female name – for a permanent position as an Associate Professor in their discipline. Drawing on the experimental design used by Moss-Racusin et al. (2012), faculty participants rated the candidates according to their competence and hirability. Contrary to our main hypothesis, we do not find evidence of a bias against female applicants to Associate Professor positions in the Nordic region. Rather, male candidate are perceived as both less competent and hirable compared to equally qualified female candidates. Of course, bias in processes prior to the event of applying for a position an Associate Professor might still be an important explanation for gender disparities. However, when female applicants have succeeded in getting on par with their male peers, our study suggest that they are at least as likely as men to being awarded permanent positions in academia.

Authors

• Arnfinn H. Midtboen, Institute for Social Research, Oslo

• Magnus Carlsson, Linneus University, Sweden

• Henning Finseraas, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Gudbjorg Linda Rafnsdottir, The University of Iceland. Faculty of Social and Human Sciences