Report: Women Scientists Face Bias

(AP)  Gender bias, not any biological difference between the sexes, stifles the careers of female scientists at the nation's universities, says a new report that calls for wide-ranging steps to level the playing field.

The study is the latest since Harvard University's president ignited controversy last year by suggesting that innate gender differences may partly explain why fewer women than men reach top university science jobs. The comment eventually cost him his job.

Four times more men than women who hold doctorates in science and engineering have full-time faculty positions, the National Academy of Sciences reported Monday. Minority women are virtually absent from leading tenured positions.

Female scientists typically are paid less, promoted more slowly and receive less funding than male colleagues, discrepancies not explained by productivity, the scientific significance of their work or other performance measures, the report found.

"It is not lack of talent but unintentional biases and outmoded institutional structures that are hindering the access and advancement of women," the report said. "Neither our academic institutions nor our nation can afford such underuse of precious human capital in science and engineering."

University of Miami President Donna Shalala, chairwoman of the committee that wrote the report and a former Health and Human Services secretary, said today's bias is more subtle than she faced in the late 1960s. Shalala switched universities after a boss told her women scientists would never gain tenure because they were "a bad investment" — they might want time off to have babies.

The report calls on:

The government to enforce existing anti-discrimination laws.

University leaders to publicize the gender makeup of student enrollments and faculty ranks each year, and to counteract bias in hiring and promotion.

Funders of scientific research to allow grant money for dependent care, so scientists can attend work-related conferences or perform after-hours research.