Scientific sexism: the gender bias in the scientific production of the Universidade de São Paulo

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira-Ciabati,Livia
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Santos,Luciane Loures, Hsiou,Annie Schmaltz, Sasso,Ariane Morassi, Castro,Margaret, Souza,João Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Saúde Pública
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-89102021000100255
• topic: Sexism; Scientific Publication Indicators; Gender Inequality

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To investigate gender inequity in the scientific production of the University of Sao Paulo. METHODS Members of the University of Sao Paulo faculty are the study population. The Web of Science repository was the source of the publication metrics. We selected the measures: total publications and citations, average of citations per year and item, H-index, and history of citations between 1950 and 2019. We used the name of the faculty member as a proxy to the gender identity. We use descriptive statistics to characterize the metrics. We evaluated the scissors effect by selecting faculty members with a high H-index. The historical series of citations was projected until 2100. We carry out analyses for the general population and working time subgroups: less than 10 years, 10 to 20 years, and 20 years or more. RESULTS Of the 8,325 faculty members, we included 3,067 (36.8%). Among those included, 1,893 (61.7%) were male and 1,174 (38.28%) female. The male gender presented higher values in the publication metrics (average of articles: M = 67.0 versus F = 49.7; average of citations/year: M = 53.9 versus F = 35.9), and H-index (M = 14.5 versus F = 12.4). Among the 100 individuals with the highest H-index (≥ 37), 83% are male. The male curve grows faster in the historical series of citations, opening a difference between the groups whose separation is confirmed by the projection. DISCUSSION Scientific production at the Universidade de São Paulo is subject to a gender bias. Two-thirds of the faculty are male, and hiring over the past few decades perpetuates this pattern. The large majority of high impact faculty members are male. CONCLUSION Our analysis suggests that the Universidade de São Paulo will not overcome gender inequality in scientific production without substantive affirmative action. Development does not happen by chance but through choices that are affirmative, decisive, and long-term oriented.