Sex Differences in Status Attainment in Science: The Case of the Postdoctoral Fellowship

Abstract

This article compares the status-attainment process for women and-men, using career data for a sample of 450 doctoral chemists. The study focuses on the role of the postdoctoral fellowship, a career event that is thought to validate predoctoral performance and foster later professional success. Analyses of covariance show sex interactions for both the predoctoral determinants and the occupational consequences of the postdoctoral experience (award receipt and prestige), which persist when marital status is taken into account. Such sex-fellowship interactions fail to occur only for the impact of the fellowship on productivity, indicating a prestigious award-enhanced scientific output for both sexes. These results seriously question whether achievement norms govern status attainment for female scientists and whether science is, in fact, unique in its normative structure.

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