Isabelle Kingsley and colleagues modelled 46,912 Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council grant awards over 20 years to find overall success rates did not differ according to gender but reflected workforce participation. Nor was there a gender-based split on grant amounts.
The overall pattern applied across disciplines – with proportionally fewer grants going to teams with women chief investigators in a range of STEM fields, in line with workforce participation and application.
Specific findings include,
- A trend towards parity over time at all seniority levels. At doctoral level, the success rate for women-led grants was 29 per cent in 2000 and 42 per cent in 2020. Among professors, the shift was from 14 per cent to 30 per cent;
- Women Chief Investigators (CI’s) had “roughly” the same success rates, with variations over time and by discipline;
- Grants relative to workforce participation were at the same rate at doctoral level (one per year for men and women); but for full professors, it was eight per year for women and five for men – however it is likely that disparities in award rates favouring women is due to fewer of them in the workforce
- Funding for CI’s at an academic level was the same for both genders. However more men, especially at senior ranks meant grant teams led by women received $11.6bn less across the study period.
The take-away: “observed gender differences in awarded Australian competitive research grants mirror unequal workforce participation. Fewer women in the research workforce and leading grant applications likely result in fewer awarded grants led by women than by men. This pattern emerges despite a disparity in award rates favouring women. … To resolve these gender differences, women’s entry and, more critically, retention, and progression in the research workforce need to be addressed.”
Across the 20 years, notable gender success rates for women (rounded) by discipline include
- Ag/vet science: 20 per cent
Chemistry: 15 per cent - Education: 51 per cent
- Engineering: 16 per cent
- History/archaeology: 44 per cent
- ICT: 20 per cent
- Law: 51 per cent
- Maths: 16 per cent
- Medicine: 36 per cent
- Philosophy: 27 per cent
- Physical sciences: 15 per cent
- Human society: 45 per cent
- Technology: 18 per cent
