Gender Quotas or Girls’ Networks? Evidence from an Italian Research Selection

Daniele Checchi, Simona Cicognani and Nevena Kulic
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Nevena Kulic: European University Institute, Italy

Work, Employment & Society, 2019, vol. 33, issue 3, 462-482

Abstract: This article investigates the role of the gender composition of selection committees and connections in promoting women in research. Exploiting a newly collected data set on research recruitment processes to entry-level positions in a leading Italian research centre operating mainly in the hard sciences, the study finds that bias against women manifests itself at non-tenured entry level and is attenuated by the presence of a woman on the selection committee. However, the most important predictor for recruitment in the study is previous connections with the research centre, a mechanism which, due to the lower density of network links with the institute among female candidates, operates as a selection device discriminating against women. The results suggest that the gender of the committee members, network structure and type of recruitment must all be considered in approaching recruitment policy.

Keywords: connections; gender bias; gender quotas; research centre; research recruitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:33:y:2019:i:3:p:462-482

DOI: 10.1177/0950017018813071

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