Female scientists were much less likely than their male counterparts to be submitted for assessment in the last Research Excellence Framework (REF), according to an analysis.
Overall, while women represented 42 per cent of staff potentially eligible to enter the REF 2021, the ratio of female to male staff among those submitted was 38 per cent to 62 per cent, according to a report published by the REF’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel on 13 July.
However, inequalities were far worse in some disciplinary areas, with “statistically significant effects observed for three of the four main panels”, it states.
The biggest gap in submission rates by sex was for Panel A, which covers medical and health sciences, where 84 per cent of eligible male staff were submitted compared with 63 per cent of women – a 21 percentage point difference.
