Gender-based Systematics in HST Proposal Selection

Abstract

Proposal success rates are calculated for HST Cycles 11 through 21 as a function of the gender of the Principal Investigator (PI). In each cycle, proposals with male PIs have a higher success rate, with the disparity greatest for Cycles 12 and 18. The offsets are small enough that they might be ascribed to chance for any single cycle, but the consistent pattern suggests the presence of a systematic effect. Closer inspection of results from Cycles 19, 20 and 21 shows that the systematic difference does not appear to depend on the geographic origin of the proposal nor does it depend on the gender distribution on the review panels. Segregating proposals by the seniority of the PI, the success rates by gender for more recent graduates (Ph.d. since 2000) are more closely comparable. There is also a correlation between success by gender and the average seniority of the review panel for Cycles 19 and 20, but not Cycle 21. We discuss these results and some consequent changes to the proposal format and additions to the HST TAC orientation process.

Accepted for PASP

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Quantitative Evaluation of Gender Bias in Astronomical Publications from Citation Counts
• A Dynamical Systems Description of Privilege, Power and Leadership in Academia: identifying barriers and paths to inclusive communities of excellent scholarship
• The Leaky Pipeline for Postdocs: A study of the time between receiving a PhD and securing a faculty job for male and female astronomers
• The Nonbinary Fraction: Looking Towards the Future of Gender Equity in Astronomy
• Systematics in the ALMA Proposal Review Rankings
• Inequalities faced by women in access to permanent positions in astronomy in France
• Gender Systematics in the NRAO Proposal Review System
• (Un)conscious Bias in the Astronomical Profession: Universal Recommendations to improve Fairness, Inclusiveness, and Representation
• The Proposal Auto-Categorizer and Manager for Time Allocation Review at Space Telescope Science Institute
• Update on the Systematics in the ALMA Proposal Review Process after Cycle 8
• Gender Disparity in Publishing Six Months after the KITP Workshop "Probes of Transport in Stars"
• Socio-demographic study of the exoplanet direct imaging community
• Women of the Future in the Royal Astronomical Society