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http://dx.doi.org/10.22675/STIPR.2017.8.2.001

The Effect of Gender Composition of Research Teams on Individual Researchers' Performance in China  

Ma, Ying (McGill University, Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development)
Publication Information
STI Policy Review / v.8, no.2, 2017 , pp. 1-22 More about this Journal
Abstract
This article explores the relationship between the gender composition of scientific research teams and scientists' individual performance. The gender composition of research teams is an important feature of workplace settings and influences the way people interact and communicate; however, previous research has not directly examined its relationship with scientists' individual performance. Drawing on data collected on university faculties in China in 2016, this article tests several hypotheses about individual's performance in teams with different gender compositions. The results show that team gender composition has a clear gendered effect on scientists' individual performance. The effects of tokenism for women in men-majority teams is proven, but men in women-majority teams appear to be unaffected by tokenism. Moreover, the theories claiming that homogenous teams are more conducive to better individual performance than mixed teams are supported for men but not for women. The findings of this research suggest that recruiting more women into the scientific workforce may improve their performance and thereby help diminish the gender gap in performance. It also indicates that the Chinese preferential policies towards women in science formulated in recent years have had positive impacts. However, considering that more than half of the researchers in the survey are working in men-majority teams, the task of narrowing the gender gap in performance remains a challenge. Further work is needed to explore the tensions and benefits of working with the opposite gender.
Keywords
team; gender composition; performance; individual; China;
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