Influence of gender on selection processes and career development

Dear Fellows,

We have recently published a study on the influence of gender on selection processes and career development. The results were published in EMBO reports 8, 11, 982-987 (2007) in an article titled: A persistent problem. Traditional gender roles hold back female scientists.

In addition to conducting a survey of applicants to EMBO Long-Term Fellowship and Young Investigator Programme in 1998 and 2001/2 respectively, we have collected the publication data of all applicants in those years, which allowed us to look at the scientific output.

In summary we found that - on average - the careers of our female applicants did not progress at the same rate as that of their male counterparts. As a major reason for this we found that female scientists allow their careers to take second place behind that of their male partners, or in other words, in a partnership males' careers take precedent over females' careers. We also note that the selection process is essentially gender neutral, since we could not detect any gender bias when we gender-blinded the selection committee in 2006.

The complete study is of course far more comprehensive and we invite you to have a look

Gerlind Wallon and Anna Ledin