Scholarly Citation Differences Between Male and Female Faculty in U.S. Planning Schools

Among urban planning faculty in the U.S, who is cited more – men or women? My previous analyses compared schools, years of service, and academic rank (see 2014 Urban Planning Citation Analysis), and I thought it would be interesting to look at citation totals by gender. Others have examined these differences noting challenges faced by females due to discrimination and time-off for maternity leave (see for example Leahey, 2006; van Arensbergen, van der Weijden, & Van den Besselaar, 2012). Productivity and citation activity can also be impacted by taking on administrative roles, teaching and advising loads, and other appointments that effect the amount of time available for publishing. Unfortunately data about these activities were not available for individual planning faculty in my sample. The table below shows the median number of citations by rank and gender which includes 291 females and 623 males.

Median Number of Citations by Rank and Gender

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Source: Google Scholar

The table shows that there are proportionally larger differences between males and females at the assistant and full professor ranks with slightly less difference for associate professors. However, a statistical test of median values comparing gender and rank suggests there is no significant difference (at 90% confidence level).

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So who is cited more?  There appears to be no difference.

References

Leahey, E. (2006). Gender differences in productivity research specialization as a missing link. Gender & Society, 20(6), 754-780.

van Arensbergen, P., van der Weijden, I., & Van den Besselaar, P. (2012). Gender differences in scientific productivity: a persisting phenomenon? Scientometrics, 93(3), 857-868.

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One Response to Scholarly Citation Differences Between Male and Female Faculty in U.S. Planning Schools

  1. Charlotte Frei says:

    In the final graphic, the slope of the lines suggests advanced career women are cited more than men (with the same years since PhD) as their tenure increases. Would it not be prudent to normalize the data by the number of faculty reaching each additional year so as not to bias the female line higher, toward the (2/3 fewer) women who have attained that status? As the table shows, the average female who achieves professor status has over 100 more citations than the typical male, though their averages at the associate level are much closer; perhaps this is due to trends in educational attainment, where the ultimate outcomes might be difficult to determine for another decade or more.

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