Longitudinal evidence on Norwegian PhDs suggests slower progression for women academics but not a leaky pipeline

Abstract

We use longitudinal data on the entire population of Norwegian PhD recipients over five decades to examine the reason only 1/3 of full professors in Norway are women, despite gender balance among current PhDs. We find that 90% of the lower female representation is due to lower female shares in earlier PhD cohorts, increasing sizes of cohorts, and decreasing overall rates of promotion, which together we call “compositional/historical factors.” We find that the small remaining imbalance is not caused by women dropping out but rather by 15% slower average promotion rates calculated in hazard analysis. However, women eventually catch up with men after about 20 years. We conduct a similar hazard analysis for the US and find that women doctorates are less likely than men to enter tenure-track academia although more likely to enter non-tenure-track academia. This leads to larger gender differences in advancement to full professorships and no eventual convergence. We suggest possible reasons for the differences between Norway and the US.

The sex gap in sports and exercise medicine research: who does research on females?

“…Female academics have also been found to be less likely to hold keynote speeches (Klein et al, 2017) and sit on conference panels (Teoh et al, 2021) and editorial boards (Martínez-Rosales et al, 2021;Pinho-Gomes et al, 2021), in addition to receiving fewer invitations to write papers (Holman et al, 2018) and receiving disproportionally fewer awards (Silver et al, 2017). However, recent findings indicate that the pipeline may not be as leaky everywhere, with career progression being more egalitarian in Norway than in the United States (Aksnes et al, 2022).…”

Getting ahead in the social sciences: How parenthood and publishing contribute to gender gaps in academic career advancement

“…Danell and Hjerm (2013) analyze extensive registry data on academics at Swedish universities from 1990 to 2010 and find a 37% lower chance for women of becoming full professors compared to men, a difference that has not decreased over time. Similarly, Aksnes et al (2022) employ registry data on the entire population of Norwegian PhD graduates over 5 decades and find a 15% slower progression for women into professorships compared to men. These studies, which are less vulnerable to selection bias, serve as a clear indication that disparities in advancement remain, even in gender-equal Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway.…”

“…Similarly, Aksnes et al. (2022) employ registry data on the entire population of Norwegian PhD graduates over 5 decades and find a 15% slower progression for women into professorships compared to men. These studies, which are less vulnerable to selection bias, serve as a clear indication that disparities in advancement remain, even in gender‐equal Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway.…”