Gender Bias in Academia: Network Analysis of Italian Statisticians

Forciniti, Alessia

Gender inequality in STEM disciplines, including statistics, remains a critical issue, reflecting broader societal and institutional dynamics. From a sociological perspective, career choices and educational paths are often shaped by gender stereotypes, societal expectations, and role models, both within the family and academic environments. Despite ongoing efforts to promote gender equality, structural biases still limit women’s career advancement in many fields.

This study explores the gender gap in academic career progression within the field of statistics, across Italian institutions, identifying the gender of each co-author through manual and algorithmic processes, focusing on Italy's scientific landscape from 2012 to 2022.

The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset of co-authorship networks from Scopus. Several factors were controlled for, including institutional affiliation, academic discipline, publication output, and number of collaborations.

Network analysis methods were applied to measure centrality and the strength of academic collaborations for both men and women. Network models were used to assess the likelihood of career advancement (e.g., from assistant to associate professor) while controlling for the aforementioned factors. We further employed temporal analysis to observe trends over time, investigating whether gender disparities in promotions persisted or narrowed as female representation improved. Finally, comparisons were drawn to determine whether differences in professional recognition and career trajectory were attributable to structural network positions or intrinsic biases in the system.

The results underline, to some extent, a gender discrepancy in career advancements, with men more likely to receive promotions than women, even when controlling for equivalent academic performance and network engagement. These findings suggest that systemic biases could still play a major role in limiting the career progression of women in academia.