Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Nature Reviews Materials volume 9, pages 1–3 (2024)
50k
928
Metrics details
Higher education and research institutions are critical to the well-being and success of societies, meaning their financial support is strongly in the public interest. At the same time, value-for-money principles demand that such investment delivers. Unfortunately, these principles are currently violated by one of the biggest sources of public funding inefficiency: sexism.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
£14.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
£99.00 per year
only £8.25 per issue
Buy this article
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Boivin, N., Täuber, S. & Keller, U. Nobel win: spotlight on the attrition of women in science. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03459-8 (2023).
Article Google Scholar
Spoon, K. et al. Gender and retention patterns among U.S. faculty. Sci Adv. 9, eadi2205 (2023).
Article Google Scholar
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. She Figures 2021: Tracking Progress on the Path Towards Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (European Commission, 2021).
Bourabain, D. Everyday sexism and racism in the ivory tower: the experiences of early career researchers on the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the academic workplace. Gender Work Organ. 28, 248–267 (2021).
Article Google Scholar
Casad, B. J. et al. Gender inequality in academia: problems and solutions for women faculty in STEM. J. Neurosci. Res. 99, 13–23 (2021).
Article CAS Google Scholar
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies Press, 2018).
Täuber, S., Loyens, K., Oertelt-Prigione, S. & Kubbe, I. Harassment as a consequence and cause of inequality in academia: a narrative review. EClinicalMedicine 49, 101486 (2022).
Article Google Scholar
O’Connor, P. Why is it so difficult to reduce gender inequality in male-dominated higher educational organizations? A feminist institutional perspective. Interdiscipl. Sci. Rev. 45, 207–228 (2020).
Article Google Scholar
Higher Education Authority. Report of the Expert Group: HEA National Review of Gender Equality in Irish Higher Educational Institutions (Higher Education Authority, 2016).
Greider, C. W. et al. Increasing gender diversity in the STEM research workforce. Science 366, 692–695 (2019).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Social Safety in Dutch Academia. From Paper to Practice (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2022).
Download references
Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany
Nicole Boivin
School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Nicole Boivin
Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Susanne Täuber
Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Susanne Täuber
Hamburg, Germany
Ulrike Beisiegel
Institute for Quantum Electronics, Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
Ursula Keller
Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, Eawag, Dubendorf, Switzerland
Janet G. Hering
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Correspondence to Nicole Boivin.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Reprints and permissions
Boivin, N., Täuber, S., Beisiegel, U. et al. Sexism in academia is bad for science and a waste of public funding. Nat Rev Mater 9, 1–3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00624-3
Download citation
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-023-00624-3
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
Collection
Advertisement
© 2024 Springer Nature Limited
Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.
About The Author
More Stories
From Commitments to Practice: Internet Society’s Priorities for WSIS+20 Implementation
Final Results of the 2026 Internet Society Board of Trustees Elections and IETF Selections
Community Snapshot—March