“This paper is intentionally solo-authored.”
January 10, 2016 4:04 PM Subscribe
When Teamwork Doesn't Work for Women Ms. Sarsons discovered one group of female economists who enjoyed the same career success as men: those who work alone. Specifically, she says that “women who solo author everything have roughly the same chance of receiving tenure as a man.”
by Justin Wolfers in the New York Times.
Matches my observations, as a male academic. The comment that this effect was clear in economics, but not in sociology, is interesting -- and potentially could provide clues to how to go about countering the effect in fields were it's present. What I'm wondering now is what fields exhibit this trend? For example, if it's really largely attributable to author order (alphabetical in economics, leading author first in sociology) then one would expect to see the same gender bias in theoretical computer science, but not in applied physics. I hope someone is getting on it and doing the analysis as we speak. They better be.
posted by brambleboy at 4:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by brambleboy at 4:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Great article. Just want to mention (as he does in the article) that the long-time partner of Justin Wolfers is Betsey Stevenson, herself a notable economist who (amongst other things) was previously Chief Economist for the DOL, as well as currently serving on The Council of Economic Advisors after being appointed by Obama.
Justin Wolfers has a large twitter following as has used his platform for years to ceaselessly both elevate the voices and work of women economists as well as highlight the sexism that women in the field continue to face. He's fantastic.
I don't have anything to really add to what the article said, but just wanted to highlight one of the article's comments that I really liked:
As a woman graduate student myself I must point out how expectations for women exacerbate this bias.
Women as a whole are touted for their teamwork skills. Indeed, this is one of the common arguments for including more women in male-dominated fields. We listen so well and work marvelously on teams! So we are expected to work on teams (against our self interest as carreer researchers, apparently). Women run into other biases if they stray from that expectation. I can't imagine a solo-publishing woman economist escaping scorn for her apparent lack of teamwork skills; avoiding being called selfish. She might present groundbreaking research to mostly empty conference rooms because her name was the only one on the paper. Let's not pretend that the world's image of a go-it-alone, respected, maverik researcher is a woman.
The newly uncovered bias is even more damaging than the article notes. Unlimately, this make the findngs all the more important.
It amazes me how deep the rabbit hole of gendered socialization goes.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [36 favorites]
Justin Wolfers has a large twitter following as has used his platform for years to ceaselessly both elevate the voices and work of women economists as well as highlight the sexism that women in the field continue to face. He's fantastic.
I don't have anything to really add to what the article said, but just wanted to highlight one of the article's comments that I really liked:
As a woman graduate student myself I must point out how expectations for women exacerbate this bias.
Women as a whole are touted for their teamwork skills. Indeed, this is one of the common arguments for including more women in male-dominated fields. We listen so well and work marvelously on teams! So we are expected to work on teams (against our self interest as carreer researchers, apparently). Women run into other biases if they stray from that expectation. I can't imagine a solo-publishing woman economist escaping scorn for her apparent lack of teamwork skills; avoiding being called selfish. She might present groundbreaking research to mostly empty conference rooms because her name was the only one on the paper. Let's not pretend that the world's image of a go-it-alone, respected, maverik researcher is a woman.
The newly uncovered bias is even more damaging than the article notes. Unlimately, this make the findngs all the more important.
It amazes me how deep the rabbit hole of gendered socialization goes.
posted by triggerfinger at 4:52 PM on January 10, 2016 [36 favorites]
My dissertation chair sideswiped this by co-authoring everything with one collaborator, another female colleague in the same university. They took turns being lead author, and gave all their conference talks together, even after my chair was elected president of the field's main research society.
posted by Peach at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Peach at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
I'm still smarting over the second authorship on a publication coming soon, which my advisor, another grad student (male), and I co-wrote. I developed the idea and methods and collected about half the data. I've presented the majority of the precursor talks and posters about it. I was in the field when it was submitted and, though I wrote the first draft with my grad student friend, I was surprised to see that he ended up with first authorship. And now I've learned: decide that stuff at the beginning of any collaboration, and be willing to say "I would like to be first author on this paper" because, apparently, it certainly will not default to me.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:39 PM on January 10, 2016 [69 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 5:39 PM on January 10, 2016 [69 favorites]
Wow. For years I've been proud of the fact that my discipline, like economics, eschews making someone the "first author" in favor of alphabetical order. Towards the end of this article it is pointed out that the bias apparent in the economics department disappears when a discipline with "first authors" (sociology) is considered. Time to test for the bias in other fields, of both types.
posted by TreeRooster at 5:50 PM on January 10, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by TreeRooster at 5:50 PM on January 10, 2016 [5 favorites]
My colleagues and I tend to assign first authorship to whoever has a promotion hurdle next. On the other hand, we also do a lot of work in teams.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:02 PM on January 10, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:02 PM on January 10, 2016 [9 favorites]
Justin Wolfers on sexism in economics, previously.
posted by J.K. Seazer at 6:56 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by J.K. Seazer at 6:56 PM on January 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
This has been my experience as a web developer. And often when I'm credited it's incorrectly, for stuff that is more stereotypically female. Often I get called a designer or a "front end" developer, when I work very much on the server side. I also find both of those things are considered for some reason less difficult or less prestigious. Both stereotypes, that they are easy and also somehow feminine, are grossly unfair.
posted by melissam at 7:07 PM on January 10, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by melissam at 7:07 PM on January 10, 2016 [6 favorites]
I neglected to include the paper (PDF) this article references.
posted by wonton endangerment at 7:59 PM on January 10, 2016
posted by wonton endangerment at 7:59 PM on January 10, 2016
It's hard to be a solo author so this sounds like it could be "women have to be twice as good to get the same respect", also.
posted by subdee at 9:27 PM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by subdee at 9:27 PM on January 10, 2016 [4 favorites]
Huh. I'm a software engineer and for the last six months or so have been working entirely on solo projects, and I've actually really noticed that both my manager and my colleagues are treating me with more respect. It's been in the back of my head for quite a while but I didn't really pull out that feeling and examine it until just now. I guess it does seem like unless I'm the only person working on what I'm working on, people seem to assume I'm not the brains of the project. Annoying. But good to know!
posted by town of cats at 10:22 PM on January 10, 2016 [21 favorites]
posted by town of cats at 10:22 PM on January 10, 2016 [21 favorites]
Sociology is also a larger percentage of women overall than economics. I'd be interested to see if the bias is still present for a first-author convention field that is the same gender lack-of-balance as econ.
I am a bit biased, because I too really love the alphabetic author convention in my field (theoretical physics). Listening to other academics go on and on about who gets to be which author is pretty exhausting and occasionally frightening, so many opportunities for ethics violations; alphabetic author order is a great way to avoid the discussion, but it does remove information about who did what.
It also affects me because we hate writing alone-- me and the mouse that I keep in my pocket so we can use the first person plural..
posted by nat at 11:12 PM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
I am a bit biased, because I too really love the alphabetic author convention in my field (theoretical physics). Listening to other academics go on and on about who gets to be which author is pretty exhausting and occasionally frightening, so many opportunities for ethics violations; alphabetic author order is a great way to avoid the discussion, but it does remove information about who did what.
It also affects me because we hate writing alone-- me and the mouse that I keep in my pocket so we can use the first person plural..
posted by nat at 11:12 PM on January 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've also always been a fan of mathematicians' tendency for alphabetically authored papers, but as others have mentioned, this really makes me reconsider. Please, someone, check data on this.
posted by vernondalhart at 12:09 AM on January 11, 2016
posted by vernondalhart at 12:09 AM on January 11, 2016
I've also always been a fan of mathematicians' tendency for alphabetically authored papers, but as others have mentioned, this really makes me reconsider. Please, someone, check data on this.
Someone should finally confront the baffling ascendency of Aabharen Aalto among the mathematics community.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:47 AM on January 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
Someone should finally confront the baffling ascendency of Aabharen Aalto among the mathematics community.
posted by leotrotsky at 7:47 AM on January 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
Right? Like how bad does Zachary Zabka have it?
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:12 AM on January 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:12 AM on January 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
I work at an academic journal, and I can't believe I never noticed this before. Yes, a lot of submissions have mixed-gender author lists, but the women in those groups tend to be younger, just starting out, and building their CV's. The more experienced they become, the more they tend write with other women or by themselves. (N.B. I haven't run any numbers and don;t have the ambition to do so. This is just a casual observation.)
The comment triggerfinger posted was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the post. From infancy, girls are heavily socialized to cooperate, to make other people happy, to keep the peace, and to not appear too loud or aggressive. It can be hard to undo all that and demand what you believe is coming to you, especially when you know you could be burning bridges you may need later on in your career.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:25 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
The comment triggerfinger posted was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the post. From infancy, girls are heavily socialized to cooperate, to make other people happy, to keep the peace, and to not appear too loud or aggressive. It can be hard to undo all that and demand what you believe is coming to you, especially when you know you could be burning bridges you may need later on in your career.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:25 AM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yes, a lot of submissions have mixed-gender author lists, but the women in those groups tend to be younger, just starting out, and building their CV's.
Ironically enough this assumption, without numerical verification, is exactly what the article describes: any time you see a woman author, you assume that she's the junior one and fail to give her leadership credit.
"Casual assumptions" are exactly where implicit biases like this arise.
posted by Dashy at 10:10 AM on January 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ironically enough this assumption, without numerical verification, is exactly what the article describes: any time you see a woman author, you assume that she's the junior one and fail to give her leadership credit.
"Casual assumptions" are exactly where implicit biases like this arise.
posted by Dashy at 10:10 AM on January 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
-Yes, a lot of submissions have mixed-gender author lists, but the women in those groups tend to be younger, just starting out, and building their CV's.
--Ironically enough this assumption, without numerical verification, is exactly what the article describes: any time you see a woman author, you assume that she's the junior one and fail to give her leadership credit.
Well, I do generally have some information about the authors beyond their names. But you're correct that without looking at the numbers it's hard to make a generalization like I did.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:47 PM on January 11, 2016
--Ironically enough this assumption, without numerical verification, is exactly what the article describes: any time you see a woman author, you assume that she's the junior one and fail to give her leadership credit.
Well, I do generally have some information about the authors beyond their names. But you're correct that without looking at the numbers it's hard to make a generalization like I did.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:47 PM on January 11, 2016
My entire career, no one has *wanted* to co-author with me. My Ph.D advisor didn't put his name on my first papers. My Post-Doc advisors didn't. My current colleagues don't. I always sort of assumed that none of them wanted to have his name associated with me because I would never amount to anything. Except now I have a reputation for being.... a hard worker.
posted by acrasis at 4:36 PM on January 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by acrasis at 4:36 PM on January 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
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