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Is there gender bias in research fellowships awarded by the NHMRC?
1Central Sydney Area Health Service Needs Assessment and Health Outcomes Unit, NSW. jward@nah.rpa.cs.nsw.gov.au
Objective:
To assess whether there is gender bias in the allocation of research fellowships granted by the Research Fellowships Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Data Sources:
Anonymous data from applications for a research fellowship from 1994 to 1997.
Results:
More men than women apply for research fellowships (sex ratio, 2.5:1), but there is no difference in the proportion of male or female applicants who succeed in their application. Among new applicants, men tend to apply for a higher level of fellowship than women.
Conclusions:
Lack of data about the numbers of eligible men and women means that we cannot draw conclusions about self-selection biases among potential applicants. However, the selection procedures of the Committee appear to be unbiased. The gender of applicants does not influence the outcome of their application.