Men and Women of the Corporation

After virtue, a study in moral theory

Although originally developed by R.K. Merton to explain advancement in scientific careers, cumulative advantage is a general mechanism for inequality across any temporal process (e.g., life course, family generations) in which a favorable relative position becomes a resource that produces further relative gains. This review shows that the term cumulative advantage has developed multiple meanings in the sociological literature. We distinguish between these alternative forms, discuss mechanisms that have been proposed in the literature that may produce cumulative advantage, and review the empirical literature in the areas of education, careers, and related life course processes.

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Cumulative Advantage as a Mechanism for Inequality: A Review of Theoretical and Empirical Developments

Based on the curricula vitae and survey responses of 443 academic scientists affiliated with university research centers in the USA, we examine the longstanding assumption that research collaborati...

The Impact of Research Collaboration on Scientific Productivity

We examine who the winners are in science problem-solving contests characterized by open broadcast of problem information, self-selection of external solvers to discrete problems from the laboratories of large research and development intensive companies, and blind review of solution submissions. Analyzing a unique data set of 166 science challenges involving over 12,000 scientists revealed that technical and social marginality, being a source of different perspectives and heuristics, plays an important role in explaining individual success in problem solving. The provision of a winning solution was positively related to increasing distance between the solver's field of technical expertise and the focal field of the problem. Female solvers---known to be in the “outer circle” of the scientific establishment---performed significantly better than men in developing successful solutions. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on open and distributed innovation by demonstrating the value of openness, at least narrowly defined by disclosing problems, in removing barriers to entry to nonobvious individuals. We also contribute to the knowledge-based theory of the firm by showing the effectiveness of a market mechanism to draw out knowledge from diverse external sources to solve internal problems.

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs286r/courses/fall10/papers/JL09.pdf

Marginality and Problem-Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search

Why do so few women choose a career in science - even as they move into medicine and law in ever-greater numbers? This comprehensive study of gender differences in science careers provides a systematic account of how US youths are selected into and out of science education in early life and how social forces affect career outcomes later in the science labour market The authors explore the extent and causes of gender differences in undergraduate and graduate science education, in scientists' geographic mobility, in research productivity, in promotion rates and earnings, and in the experience of immigrant scientists They conclude that the gender gap in parenting responsibilities is a critical barrier to the further advancement of women in science

Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes

Numerous studies have found that female scientists publish at lower rates than male scientists. So far explanations for this consistent pattern have failed to emerge, and sex differences in research productivity remain a puzzle. We report new empirical evidence based on a systematic and detailed analysis of data from four large, nationally representative, cross-sectional surveys of postsecondary faculty in 1969, 1973, 1988, and 1993. Our research yields two main findings. First, sex differences in research productivity declined over the time period studied, with the female-to-male ratio increasing from about 60 percent in the late 1960s to 75 to 80 percent in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Second, most of the observed sex differences in research productivity can be attributed to sex differences in personal characteristics, structural positions, and marital status. These results suggest that sex differences in research productivity stem from sex differences in structural locations and as such respond to the secular improvement of women's position in science.

https://www.aeaweb.org/committees/cswep/papers/XieShauman1998.pdf

Sex differences in research productivity : New evidence about an old puzzle

Empirical analyses of sex differences in the career consequences of family migration have focused on adjudicating between the human capital and the gender-role explanations but have ignored the potential infl uence of gender inequality in the structure of the labor market. In this paper we estimate conditional difference-in-difference models with individual-, family- and occupation-level data to test a structural explanation that attributes sex differences in the returns to family migration to occupational sex segregation. Despite using measures of relevant occupational characteristics and occupational fi xed effects, our results do not support the structural explanation. Instead, the results add to the body of empirical evidence that is consistent with the gender-role explanation of sex differences in the experience of family migration.

/pdf/family-migration-and-labor-force-outcomes-sex-differences-in-1cr5vsz148.pdf

Family Migration and Labor Force Outcomes: Sex Differences in Occupational Context

Occupational sex segregation and the earnings of occupations: What causes the link among college-educated workers?

The stereotypical retirement experience – the abrupt ceasing of all paid work and commencement of a life of leisure – is the experience of only half of all workers. Yet, despite the prevalence of combining work and retirement in the US and the implications this work-retirement behavior may have for organizations and individual workers, post-retirement employment behavior is understudied. In this article, we add to the growing literature on retirement and late-life employment processes by examining the trends and correlates of post-retirement employment in the US from 1977 to 2009. We find a modest curvilinear trend in post-retirement employment for both males and females over the last 33 years. However, the modest upward trends in post-retirement employment obscure the countervailing influences of significant changes in behavior and in the macro-level demographic and economic forces that are significant determinants of post-retirement employment.

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Kimberlee A. Shauman

Papers

Women in Science: Career Processes and Outcomes

Sex differences in research productivity : New evidence about an old puzzle

Family Migration and Labor Force Outcomes: Sex Differences in Occupational Context

Occupational sex segregation and the earnings of occupations: What causes the link among college-educated workers?

Trends and correlates of post-retirement employment, 1977-2009