Writing Together About the American Southwest: Gendered Coauthorship and Publication Teams

Research that results in coauthored publications provides invaluable benefits to individual careers, bolstering applications for jobs, promotions, and funding. Building on studies that demonstrate that men publish at higher frequencies than women, we consider how coauthorship may influence disparities in women’s publication records in Southwest archaeology. A detailed consideration of coauthorship trends reveals both men and women lead authors consistently coauthor more often with men, but men do so at substantially higher rates. Similarly, edited volumes and special issues include more women authors when women are in editor positions, particularly when there are more women than men editors. Using frameworks of gender homophily, performative informality, and social networks to examine the trends, we consider why women may be excluded more often from coauthorship opportunities and recommend individual interventions to achieve greater equity in Southwest archaeology publishing.