Study: Gender Linked to Faculty Pay

Female faculty members in the sciences are nearly half as likely as their male counterparts to receive paid advisory positions in the private sector, according to a Harvard Business School study drafted this summer.

Positions on science advisory boards can provide substantial boosts to academics’ incomes, typically in payments amounting to around 5 percent of company shares. But after spending years collecting data on more than 500 biotech firms, the researchers confirmed a major discrepancy in whom is appointed to such positions.

The report, titled “From Bench to Board: Gender Differences in University Scientists’ Participation in Commercial Science,” builds off of a collection of recent literature that has brought to light the gender imbalances across academia.

At Harvard University, where only a quarter of the faculty are women, the administration has spearheaded a series of projects to increase female representation in the faculty since it established the Office of Faculty Development & Diversity in 2005.

But the authors, including Business School Professor Toby E. Stuart, set out to investigate whether the gender discrepancies across academia carry over to the commercial lives of faculty members. Seeking to explain the employment gap, the authors pointed to a lack of women currently in the private sector, which they believe leads to a male-dominated commercial environment.

“It’s important for companies to realize the problem and find ways to increase the representation of women in the senior ranks,” said co-author Waverly W. Ding, of University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers were most surprised to find the gap largest in elite institutions. At schools such as MIT, women were even less likely to serve on advisory boards relative to their male counterparts.

“Our explanation is that there is a kind of conservative trend among women at top universities,” Ding said.

“A commercial affiliation might not be seen as criteria for strong performance for women at elite universities,” she added.

—Staff writer Noah S. Rayman can be reached at nrayman@fas.harvard.edu.