Skip to main content

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.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

Making gender diversity work for scientific discovery and innovation

Nature Human Behaviour volume 2, pages 726–734 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Gender diversity has the potential to drive scientific discovery and innovation. Here, we distinguish three approaches to gender diversity: diversity in research teams, diversity in research methods and diversity in research questions. While gender diversity is commonly understood to refer only to the gender composition of research teams, fully realizing the potential of diversity for science and innovation also requires attention to the methods employed and questions raised in scientific knowledge-making. We provide a framework for understanding the best ways to support the three approaches to gender diversity across four interdependent domains — from research teams to the broader disciplines in which they are embedded to research organizations and ultimately to the different societies that shape them through specific gender norms and policies. Our analysis demonstrates that realizing the benefits of diversity for science requires careful management of these four interdependent domains.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Three approaches to gender diversity.
Fig. 2: Four interdependent domains.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth (European Commission, 2012).

  2. Statement of Principles and Actions Promoting the Equality and Status of Women in Research (Global Research Council, 2016); https://www.globalresearchcouncil.org/fileadmin//documents/GRC_Publications/Statement_of_Principles_and_Actions_Promoting_the_Equality_and_Status_of_Women_in_Research.pdf

  3. Huyer, S. in UNESCO Science Report: Towards 2030 (ed. Schneegans, S.) 84–103 (UNESCO Publishing, Paris, 2015); http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002354/235406e.pdf

  4. Maes, K., Gvozdanovic, J., Buitendijk, S., Hallberg, I. R. & Mantilleri, B. Women, Research and Universities: Excellence Without Gender Bias (League of European Research Universities, Leuven, 2012).

  5. Diversity in science. The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/topic/ (2017).

  6. Valantine, H. A. & Collins, F. S. National Institutes of Health addresses the science of diversity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 12240–12242 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hong, L. & Page, S. E. Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 16385–16389 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Page, S. E. The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 2008).

  9. Phillips, K. W. How diversity works. Sci. Am. 311, 42–47 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Nishii, L. H. The benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. Acad. Manage. J. 56, 1754–1774 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Bear, J. B. & Woolley, A. W. The role of gender in team collaboration and performance. Interdiscip. Sci. Rev. 36, 146–153 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Joshi, A., Liao, H. & Roh, H. Bridging domains in workplace demography research: a review and reconceptualization. J. Manage. 37, 521–552 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Van Dijk, H., van Engen, M. L. & van Knippenberg, D. Defying conventional wisdom: a meta-analytical examination of the differences between demographic and job related diversity relationships with performance. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process 119, 38–53 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Díaz-García, C., González-Moreno, A. & Jose Sáez-Martínez, F. Gender diversity within R&D teams: its impact on radicalness of innovation. Innovation 15, 149–160 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Faems, D. & Subramanian, A. M. R&D manpower and technological performance: the impact of demographic and task-related diversity. Res. Policy 42, 1624–1633 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Fernández, J. The impact of gender diversity in foreign subsidiaries’ innovation outputs. Int. J. Gend Entrep. 7, 148–167 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Østergaard, C. R., Timmermans, B. & Kristinsson, K. Does a different view create something new? The effect of employee diversity on innovation. Res. Policy 40, 500–509 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Sastre, J. F. The impact of R&D teams’ gender diversity on innovation outputs. Int. J. Entrep. Small Bus. 24, 142–162 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Turner, L. Gender diversity and innovative performance. Int. J. Innov. Sustain. Dev. 4, 123–134 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Campbell, L. G., Mehtani, S., Dozier, M. E. & Rinehart, J. Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science. PLoS ONE 8, e79147 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Joshi, A. By whom and when is women’s expertise recognized? The interactive effects of gender and education in science and engineering teams. Adm. Sci. Q. 25, 202–239 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Lungeanu, A. & Contractor, N. S. The effects of diversity and network ties on innovations: the emergence of a new scientific field. Am. Behav. Sci. 59, 548–564 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Saá-Pérez, D., Díaz-Díaz, N. L., Aguiar-Díaz, I. & Ballesteros-Rodríguez, J. L. How diversity contributes to academic research teams performance. R&D Manage. 47, 165–179 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Stvilia, B. et al. Composition of scientific teams and publication productivity at a national science lab. J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 62, 270–283 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. For a Better Integration of the Gender Dimension in Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016–2017 (European Commission, 2015); http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetailDoc&id=18892&no=1

  26. Buitendijk, S. & Maes, K. Gendered Research and Innovation: Integrating Sex and Gender Analysis into the Research Process (League of European Research Universities, Leuven, 2015).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Schiebinger, L. & Klinge, I. Gendered Innovations: How Gender Analysis Contributes to Research (Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Sánchez de Madariaga, I., de Gregorio Hurtado, S. (eds). Advancing Gender in Research, Innovation and Sustainable Development (Fundación General de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, 2016).

  29. Bührer, S. & Schraudner, M. Gender-Aspekte in der Forschung: Wie können Gender-Aspekte in Forschungsvorhaben erkannt und bewertet werden? (Frauenhofer IRB Verlag, Stuttgart, 2006).

  30. Adler, R. A. Osteoporosis in men: a review. Bone Res. 2, 14001 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Schiebinger, L. et al. Sex and gender analysis policies of major granting agencies. Gendered Innovations http://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/sex-and-gender-analysis-policies-major-granting-agencies.html (2018).

  32. Johnson, J., Sharman, Z., Vissandjee, B. & Stewart, D. E. Does a change in health research funding policy related to the integration of sex and gender have an impact? PLoS ONE 9, e99900 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. De Cheveigné, S. & Knoll, B. Interim Evaluation: Gender Equality as a Crosscutting Issue in Horizon 2020 (Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017).

    Google Scholar 

  34. European Commission She Figures 2015 (Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2016).

  35. US General Accounting Office. Drug Safety: Most Drugs Withdrawn in Recent Years had Greater Health Risks for Women (Government Publishing Office, Washington DC, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  36. Roth, J. et al. Economic return from the women’s health initiative estrogen plus progestin clinical trial: a modeling study. Ann. Intern. Med. 160, 594–602 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Ovseiko, P. V. et al. A global call for action to include gender in research impact assessment. Health Res. Policy Syst. 14, 50 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Nielsen, M. W. et al. Opinion: gender diversity leads to better science. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 1740–1742 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  39. Dolado, J. J., Felgueroso, F. & Almunia, M. Are men and women-economists evenly distributed across research fields? Some new empirical evidence. SERIEs 3, 367–393 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Light, R. in Networks, Work, and Inequality (ed. Mcdonald, S.) 239–268 (Research in the Sociology of Work Vol. 24, Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, 2013).

  41. Mapping Gender in the German Research Area (Elsevier, 2015); https://www.elsevier.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/126715/ELS_Germany_Gender_Research-SinglePages.pdf

  42. Maliniak, D., Powers, R. & Walter, B. F. The gender citation gap in international relations. Int. Organ. 67, 889–922 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. West, J. D., Jacquet, J., King, M. M., Correll, S. J. & Bergstrom, C. T. The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PLoS ONE 8, e66212 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Nonnemaker, L. Women physicians in academic medicine — new insights from cohort studies. N. Engl. J. Med. 342, 399–405 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Rosser, S. V. An overview of women’s health in the US since the mid-1960s. Hist. Technol. 18, 355–369 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Schiebinger, L. Has Feminism Changed Science? (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1999).

  47. Fedigan, L. M. Primate Paradigms: Sex Roles and Social Bonds (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992).

  48. Schiebinger, L. (ed.) Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering (Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, 2008).

  49. Nielsen, M. W., Andersen, J. P., Schiebinger, L. & Schneider, J. W. One and a half million medical papers reveal a link between author gender and attention to gender and sex analysis. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 791–796 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Herring, C. Does diversity pay? Race, gender, and the business case for diversity. Am. Sociol. Rev. 74, 208–224 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Mannix, E. & Neale, M. A. What differences make a difference? The promise and reality of diverse teams in organizations. Psychol. Sci. Public Interest 6, 31–55 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Shore, L. M. et al. Diversity in organizations: Where are we now and where are we going? Hum. Resour. Manage. Rev. 19, 117–133 (2009).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Williams, K. Y. & O’Reilly, C. A. in Research in Organizational Behavior (eds Staw, B. M. & Cummings, L. L.) 77–140 (JAI Press, Greenwich, 1998).

  54. Homan, A. C., Van Knippenberg, D., Van Kleef, G. A. & De Dreu, C. K. Bridging faultlines by valuing diversity: diversity beliefs, information elaboration, and performance in diverse work groups. J. Appl. Psychol. 92, 1189–1199 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Lauring, J. & Villesèche, F. The performance of gender diverse teams: What is the relation between diversity attitudes and degree of diversity? Eur. Manage. Rev. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12164 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Van Knippenberg, D., Haslam, S. A. & Platow, M. J. Unity through diversity: value-in-diversity beliefs, work group diversity, and group identification. Group Dyn. 11, 207–222 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Hobman, E. V., Bordia, P. & Gallois, C. Perceived dissimilarity and work group involvement: the moderating effects of group openness to diversity. Group Organ. Manage. 29, 560–587 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Joshi, A. & Knight, A. P. Who defers to whom and why? Dual pathways linking demographic differences and dyadic deference to team effectiveness. Acad. Manag. J. 58, 59–84 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Hobman, E. V. & Bordia, P. The role of team identification in the dissimilarity-conflict relationship. Group Process. Intergroup Relat. 9, 483–507 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Mohammed, S. & Angell, L. C. Surface- and deep-level diversity in workgroups: examining the moderating effects of team orientation and team process on relationship conflict. J. Organ. Behav. 25, 1015–1039 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Homan, A. C. et al. Facing differences with an open mind: openness to experience, salience of intragroup differences, and performance of diverse work groups. Acad. Manage. J. 51, 1204–1222 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Roos, P. A. & Reskin, B. F. Occupational desegregation in the 1970s: Integration and economic equity? Sociol. Perspect. 35, 69–91 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Lautenberger, D. M., Dandar, V. M. & Raezer, C. L. The State of Women in Academic Medicine: The Pipeline and Pathways to Leadership 2013–2014 (Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington DC, 2014).

    Google Scholar 

  64. Becher, T. The significance of disciplinary differences. Stud. Higher Educ. 19, 151–161 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Zou, J. & Schiebinger, L. AI can be sexist and racist — it’s time to make it fair. Nature 559, 324–326 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  66. Felt, U. & Stöckelová, T. in Knowing and Living in Academic Research (ed. Felt, U.) 41–124 (Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, 2009).

  67. Lamont, M. How Professors Think (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2009).

  68. Whitley, R. The Intellectual and Social Organization of the Sciences (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  69. Stewart, A. J., Malley, J. E. & LaVaque-Manty, D. Transforming Science and Engineering: Advancing Academic Women (Univ. Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 2007).

  70. Courses. Course 1: the science of sex and gender in human health. National Institutes of Health https://sexandgendercourse.od.nih.gov/content/courses (2018).

  71. Sex and Gender in Biomedical Research (Canadian Institutes of Health, 2018); http://www.cihr-irsc-igh-isfh.ca/

  72. Schiebinger, L. et al. Sex and gender analysis policies of peer-reviewed journals. Gendered Innovations https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/sex-and-gender-analysis-policies-peer-reviewed-journals.html (2018).

  73. Author instructions: manuscript preparation Circulation Research https://www.ahajournals.org/res/manuscript-preparation (2018).

  74. Miller, V. M. In pursuit of scientific excellence: sex matters. Am. J. Physiol. Cell Physiol. 302, C1269–C1270 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  75. Schiebinger, L., Leopold, S. S. & Miller, V. M. Editorial policies for sex and gender analysis. Lancet 388, 2841–2842 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 2017); http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/archives/

  77. Ludwig, S. et al. A successful strategy to integrate sex and gender medicine into a newly developed medical curriculum. J. Womens Health 24, 996–1005 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  78. Brooks, C., Fenton, E. M. & Walker, T. J. Gender and the evaluation of research. Res. Policy 43, 990–1001 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  79. Hunter, L. A. & Leahey, E. Parenting and research productivity: new evidence and methods. Soc. Stud. Sci. 40, 433–451 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  80. Nielsen, M. W. Gender consequences of a national performance-based funding model: new pieces in an old puzzle. Stud. Higher Educ. 42, 1033–1055 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  81. Schneid, M., Isidor, R., Li, C. & Kabst, R. The influence of cultural context on the relationship between gender diversity and team performance: a meta-analysis. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manage. 26, 733–756 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  82. European Commission Seventh FP7 Monitoring Report 2013 (Publications Office of the European Union, 2015).

  83. Commission Staff Working Document: Horizon 2020 Annual Monitoring Report 2015 (European Commission, 2016).

  84. Fact Sheet: Gender Equality in Horizon 2020 (European Commission, 2013); https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/sites/horizon2020/files/FactSheet_Gender_2.pdf

  85. Topics with a gender dimension. European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/ftags/gender.html#c,topics=flags/s/Gender/1/1&+callDeadline/desc (2015).

  86. Clayton, J. & Collins, F. NIH to balance sex in cell and animal studies. Nature 509, 282–283 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  87. Aksnes, D. et al. Centres of Excellence in the Nordic Countries (NIFU, Oslo, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  88. Sandström, U., Wold, A., Jordansson, B., Ohlsson, B. & Smedberg, Å. Hans Excellens: om miljardsatsningarna på starka forskningsmiljöer (Delegationen för Jämställdhet i Högskolan, Stockholm, 2010).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank E. Steiner, Co-Director, Spatial History Project, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, Stanford University, for executing our graphics.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Mathias Wullum Nielsen & Carter Walter Bloch

  2. History of Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Londa Schiebinger

Authors
  1. Mathias Wullum Nielsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Carter Walter Bloch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Londa Schiebinger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.W.N., L.S. and C.W.B. conceptualized and wrote the paper. M.W.N. and L.S. carried out literature searches, and M.W.N. and C.W.B. prepared tables. L.S. and M.W.N. conceptualized Figs. 1 and 2.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mathias Wullum Nielsen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

: Supplementary Methods; Supplementary Table 1 -4

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nielsen, M.W., Bloch, C.W. & Schiebinger, L. Making gender diversity work for scientific discovery and innovation. Nat Hum Behav 2, 726–734 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0433-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0433-1

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing