Higher Education

Abstract

Purpose: The authors provide an analysis of sex differences in National Institutes of Health (NIH) award programs to inform potential initiatives for promoting diversity in the research workforce.

Method: In 2010, the authors retrieved data for NIH extramural grants in the electronic Research Administration Information for Management, Planning, and Coordination II database and used statistical analysis to determine any sex differences in securing NIH funding, as well as subsequent success of researchers who had already received independent NIH support.

Results: Success and funding rates for men and women were not significantly different in most award programs. Furthermore, in programs where participation was lower for women than men, the disparity was primarily related to a lower percentage of women applicants compared with men, rather than decreased success rates or funding rates. However, for subsequent grants, both application and funding rates were generally higher for men than for women.

Conclusions: Cross-sectional analysis showed that women and men were generally equally successful at all career stages, but longitudinal analysis showed that men with previous experience as NIH grantees had higher application and funding rates than women at similar career points. On average, although women received larger R01 awards than men, men had more R01 awards than women at all points in their careers. Therefore, while greater participation of women in NIH programs is under way, further action will be required to eradicate remaining sex differences.

From the article:

But obesity affects not only health but also economic outcomes: overweight people have less success in the job market and make less money over the course of their careers than slimmer people. The problem is particularly acute for overweight women, because they are significantly less likely to complete college.

From the article:

From the Selected Findings: 

The full report also looks at a host of other factors, broken down by specific majors, that can affect potential earnings, including gender, race and ethnicity. In some cases, the findings are stark. Gender inequality, as expressed in pay differences, is rampant across virtually every major. For example, even in one of the highest-earning majors for women (Chemical Engineering), women still make $20,000 less per year than men. The report also highlights some glaring racial and ethnic earnings gaps. For instance, African-Americans who graduate with a Finance major earn an average of $47,000 per year, which is less than Hispanics ($56,000) and Asians ($56,000) — and much less than Whites($70,000).

From the press release: 

"After Title IX was passed in 1972, women made monumental strides in higher-level education and now account for 50 percent or more of students in every field of study — as long as engineering is not included on that list.

The national average of women majoring in engineering is a meager 18 percent, said Cathy Pieronek, the assistant dean of academic affairs in engineering at the University of Notre Dame.  When Pieronek and other officials at Notre Dame's College of Engineering realized the extent of the gender gap in 2002, they took steps to improve the situation.

In the past eight years, Notre Dame increased the percentage of women in the College of Engineering from 22 percent to 30 percent in this year's freshman class. Pieronek said this number is especially impressive when compared to the national average and percentages at other universities.

Pieronek said, however, the College of Engineering at Notre Dame is graduating more women thanks in large part to a dual program with neighboring Saint Mary's College.  The program, which was formalized in 2005 but existed since the early 1970s, allows a Saint Mary's student to take pre-engineering classes starting her sophomore year at the college, while concurrently earning a degree in mathematics or one of the sciences. At the end of her four years, she graduates from Saint Mary's with a bachelor's degree in her selected major and then enrolls at Notre Dame for a fifth year in the College of Engineering."