From tdj

[sinclair_furie]

Feminism.
Why are there so few women in science?
Terry blogs here, and this is what he said:
We're going to ask 180 men and 180 women to rate a scientific paper. The author will be given either a male name, a female name, or gender-neutral initials - the papers are otherwise identical.

Here are the results:

Article reviewed by:	John T. McKay	Joan T. McKay	J. T. McKay
Men	77.5	50.0	57.5
Women	67.5	50.0	60.0

I am pissed now.

Comments

[footballqueen07.livejournal.com]

not cool !!!

The SS law

[fractaltime.livejournal.com]

The women rated it lower, too? This does not bode well. Since you have the background, I guess you could call it the "scientific sharia law" where a woman's words (scientific paper) are worth only half as much as a man's (scientific paper).

[agnosticpope.livejournal.com]

It may have nothing to do with gender. There was a very similar study where teachers were given papers by students of different names, from Mike to Waldo. Despite the papers being of identical quality, the ones with the more "mainstream" names were rated more highly (i.e. Waldo did the worst while Mike did the best). I bet if "Jethro" and "Jennifer" were picked for the study, Jennifer would win.

[fractaltime.livejournal.com]

Interesting possibility, but ... John/Joan?