Publication Productivity and Career Advancement by Female and Male Psychology Faculty: The Case of Italy

Colorado State UniversityIn the United States, women tend to publish less than men do and to be overrepresented atthe lower ranks of academia. This study examined the scientic productivity and careerstatus of female and male psychology faculty in Italian universities. Psychology wasselected as a discipline because for decades, it has had a female majority among itsdoctorates.Italywasthecasestudycountrybecauseithasoneofthehighestrepresentationsofwomenamonguniversityfaculty.Thisstudy’squestionswere:Whatistherepresentationof female psychology academics across faculty and high administration ranks? Is thepublication productivity of female psychology academics different from that of their malepeers?Finally,whatinstitutionalfactorsareassociatedwithpublicationproductivityamongpsychology academics? Our study focused on the 511 university psychology professors(250 women and 261 men) listed in 2004 in the Italian Ministry of Education Universityand Research website. We examined scientic productivity over 7 years, from 1998 to2004,usingPsycINFO.Wefoundthatwomenrepresentedtwothirdsofassistantprofessorsbut only one third of full professors and department chairs. Overall, women publishedsomewhat less (approximately one third less) than men, especially in international journalsand as senior authors. However, consistent with prior evidence, when multiple predictorswere considered together, both academic rank and institutional setting, but not sex-of-faculty,wereassociatedwithpublicationoutput.Thisstudyconrmspriorobservationsthatastrongfemaledoctoralpipelineandscienticproductivityareveryslowatinuencingtheunderrepresentation of women at the top ranks of academia.Keywords: