The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000s
From Social Studies of Science
This study reveals that when men chair committees that select scientific awards recipients, males win the awards more than 95% of the time despite the fact that women made up 21% of the nomination pools. It also reports that while in the past two decades women have begun to win more awards for their scientific achievements, compared to men, they win more service and teaching awards and fewer prestigious scholarly awards than would be expected based on their representation in the nomination pool. The researchers suggested some possible solutions to this problem such as increasing the proportion of female nominees for all types of scientific prizes, ensuring that women are well represented on prize committees, constantly reviewing award criteria to check for implicit bias, and establishing an oversight committee to maintain standards of equality.
