The ‘gender gap’ in authorship in nursing literature
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Discussion
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Implication
Bibliometric analysis reveals male overrepresentation in first authorship in UK nursing journals, indicating persistent gender gaps in academic career advancement.
Key Points
- To determine whether gender bias exists in the authorship of leading nursing journals over a 30-year period, despite the nursing workforce being approximately 90% female.
- Analyzed 30 years of first-author gender representation across eight non-specialist nursing journals with top impact factors from the UK (n=3), USA (n=4), and Australia (n=1).
- Compared male and female authorship across journals, countries, and across time using Chi-square and Fisher exact tests.
- Men accounted for up to 30% of first authors across the evaluated journals, substantially exceeding their roughly 10% share of the nursing workforce.
- UK journals had a higher proportion of male first authors compared to USA journals, with male authorship in UK publications increasing over the 30-year period.
- USA journals maintained male first-authorship rates that remained generally consistent with the male proportion of the domestic nursing workforce.
Cite This Study
Shields et al. (2011) studied this question.