A scoping review of gendered academic career outcomes: An ecosystem perspective

Abstract

A robust body of research demonstrates that women experience poorer career outcomes than men in academia. We conduct a scoping review of research investigating career outcome differences between female and male academics and find that research on this topic has increased over time. However, we also find that research examines a limited number of career outcomes (authorship and leadership) and overlooks the interconnections between academic career outcomes that accumulate gender disadvantage over an entire career. Using an ecosystem perspective, we lay the foundation for an academic career framework that aligns a causal chain of career outcomes with influential organisational actors best positioned to implement corrective interventions. Our review identifies empty spaces in the empirical database: researchers are focussing on gender differences in career outcomes that occur late in the causal chain (e.g., authorship), with less attention to gender disadvantage early in the causal chain (e.g., workloads). We encourage researchers to investigate gender differences in an expanded portfolio of career outcomes. We call on academic institutions to support research on outcome interconnections, so that their interventions can target gender bias at the earliest links in a causal chain. Finally, we highlight the value of engaging a diverse set of actors (academic institutions, professional associations, journals and funding agencies) to make academia more gender-inclusive.