Research: Academia
Women and scholars of color are under-represented at the highest levels of academia. To determine to what extent these differences are due to demographic inertia (time lag, in disciplines that have historically been male- and white-biased) versus due to sex- or race-specific probabilities of continuing on in academia, we built a model with NSF data.
For women, we found that although there is some demographic inertia, there are also clear effects of sex-specific differences. Overall patterns varied by discipline: for engineering, math, computer science, and physics, women who leave do so before starting undergraduate degrees, whereas for biology, psychology and social sciences, women leave between getting a PhD and starting as an assistant professor. There are sex differences in tendency to leave for almost all transitions. (Shaw & Stanton 2012)
With respect to race and ethnicity, we found that failed retention of non-white scholars contributes to under-representation in academia (Shaw et al. 2021). Furthermore, the stage responsible for the largest disparities differ: for Black and Hispanic scholars this occurs at the transition from graduate student to postdoctoral researcher whereas for Native scholars this occurs at transitions to and within faculty stages.
For women, we found that although there is some demographic inertia, there are also clear effects of sex-specific differences. Overall patterns varied by discipline: for engineering, math, computer science, and physics, women who leave do so before starting undergraduate degrees, whereas for biology, psychology and social sciences, women leave between getting a PhD and starting as an assistant professor. There are sex differences in tendency to leave for almost all transitions. (Shaw & Stanton 2012)
With respect to race and ethnicity, we found that failed retention of non-white scholars contributes to under-representation in academia (Shaw et al. 2021). Furthermore, the stage responsible for the largest disparities differ: for Black and Hispanic scholars this occurs at the transition from graduate student to postdoctoral researcher whereas for Native scholars this occurs at transitions to and within faculty stages.
Sex differences in the transitions between academic ranks as compared to the null expectation, across scientific disciplines, with either males more likely than females to leave at this transition (bars > 1) or females more likely than males to leave at this transition (bars < 1) (Table 1 in Shaw & Stanton 2012).
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Since our work above highlighted the transition between PhD degree and starting as an assistant professor as the leakest part of the pipeline for biology, we decided to take a closer look at this stage. For academic ecologists, taking a postdoctoral research position before starting as an assistant professor is becoming the norm. However there is huge variation in the specific expectation of theses positions, and this phase has a large degree of uncertainty. We conducted a survey to determine the biggest challenges facing ecology postdocs, and then ran a workshop to brainstorm possible solutions that could be implemented by the broader ecological community to address these challenges (Shaw, Stanton et al. 2015). Our findings suggest a number of actions that could be taken at the level of academic societies to improve the postdoc experience:
- create specific early-career groups or unions within societies or universities
[the Ecological Society of America's Early Career Section was created in response to this] - create society-endorsed guidelines for best practices for postdocing and postdoc mentoring
- centralize resources and improve communication
- run early career workshops at professional meetings
- strengthen society-based mentoring program
Relevant papers
Shaw AK (2022) "Diverse perspectives from diverse scholars are vital for theoretical biology." Theoretical Ecology 15: 143–146.
Shaw AK, Accolla C, Chacón JM, Mueller TL, Vaugeois M, Yang Y, Sekar N, Stanton DE (2021) "Differential retention contributes to racial/ethnic disparity in U.S. academia." PLoS ONE 16(12): e0259710.
Shaw AK, Stanton DE, Supp SR, Budden A, Eby S, Reynolds PL, Salguero-Gómez R, Scholes DR, Zimmerman NB (2015) "Ecology postdocs in academia: primary concerns and possible solutions." Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 96: 140–152.
Shaw AK*, Stanton DE* (2012) "Leaks in the pipeline: separating structural inertia from ongoing gender differences in academia." Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 279: 3736-3741.
Shaw AK, Accolla C, Chacón JM, Mueller TL, Vaugeois M, Yang Y, Sekar N, Stanton DE (2021) "Differential retention contributes to racial/ethnic disparity in U.S. academia." PLoS ONE 16(12): e0259710.
Shaw AK, Stanton DE, Supp SR, Budden A, Eby S, Reynolds PL, Salguero-Gómez R, Scholes DR, Zimmerman NB (2015) "Ecology postdocs in academia: primary concerns and possible solutions." Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 96: 140–152.
Shaw AK*, Stanton DE* (2012) "Leaks in the pipeline: separating structural inertia from ongoing gender differences in academia." Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 279: 3736-3741.
