CONGRESS LAUNCHES PROBE INTO “SCIENCE FUNDING BIAS”

Is Gender Influencing the Way Research Grants Are Awarded in the US?

Gender disparity within the professions is a frequent topic of debate in online forums, but less so in mainstream media. The science community is not immune to this ongoing debate, and now through the lobbying of three US Congresswomen, the debate surrounding gender bias is set to reach the upper echelons of US politics and could soon have a real impact on how science is funded. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched a probe into whether a person’s gender influences the way research grants are awarded, which under US law is illegal. Some people have speculated that a funding bias could be the reason why women “hold only 35% of all tenured and tenure-track positions and 17% of full professor positions in Stem fields.”