Working Paper: NBER ID: w30510
Authors: David Card; Stefano Dellavigna; Patricia Funk; Nagore Iriberri
Abstract: Historically, a large majority of the newly elected members of the National Academy of Science (NAS) and the American Academy of Arts and Science (AAAS) were men. Within the past two decades, however, that situation has changed, and in the last 3 years women made up about 40 percent of the new members in both academies. We build lists of active scholars from publications in the top journals in three fields – Psychology, Mathematics and Economics – and develop a series of models to compare changes in the probability of selection of women as members of the NAS and AAAS from the 1960s to today, controlling for publications and citations. In the early years of our sample, women were less likely to be selected as members than men with similar records. By the 1990s, the selection process at both academies was approximately gender-neutral, conditional on publications and citations. In the past 20 years, however, a positive preference for female members has emerged and strengthened in all three fields. Currently, women are 3-15 times more likely to be selected as members of the AAAS and NAS than men with similar publication and citation records.
Keywords: gender gaps; academies; academic recognition; female representation
JEL Codes: J15; J16; O30
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| gender (J16) | selection probability (C52) |
| academic achievements (I24) | selection probability (C52) |
| gender (female vs. male) (J16) | selection probability (historically) (C52) |
| gender (female vs. male) (J16) | selection probability (recently) (C52) |
| gender (J16) | preference for female candidates (J16) |