Gender and Stratification in Science

The study offers empirical evidence of gender inequities in the academic hierarchy as an import ant aspect of the social organisation of Indian science. While there are no statistically significant differences in terms of writing books, articles and presenting papers at conferences, the two groups (men and women scientists) differ in terms of academic rank. Discrimination is one obvious explanation, and gender stratification can be proposed as a perspective to explain this phenomenon. Research performance appears to be unrelated to the differential ranking of men and women scientists—it points towards a lack of universalistic factors in promotion. Another finding is that there is no difference between men and women scientists in terms of recognition measures, such as awards and membership of professional organisations. The results reveal: (a) the role of gender, an ascriptive factor, as a reference point from which differentiation does take place within Indian scientific institutions; and (b) the association between scientific careers for women and the class structure.