Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Grant-writing and grant-getting are key to success in many academic disciplines, but research points to gender gaps in both, especially as careers progress. Using a sample of National Institutes of Health (NIH) K-Awardees—Principal Investigators of Mentored Career Development Awards—we examined gender and race effects in response to imagined negative grant reviews that emphasized either promise or inadequacy. Women translated both forms of feedback into worse NIH priority scores than did men and showed reduced motivation to reapply for funding following the review highlighting inadequacy. Translation of feedback mediated the effects of gender on motivation, changing one’s research focus, and advice-seeking. Race effects were less consistent, and race did not moderate effects of gender. We suggest that gender bias in grant reviews (i.e., greater likelihood of highlighting inadequacy in reviews of women’s grants), along with gender differences in responsiveness to feedback, may contribute to women’s underrepresentation in academic medicine.

Keywords

gender stereotyping feedback motivation race

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2015). Table 1: Medical students, selected years, 1965-2015. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/download/481178/data/2015table1.pdf

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2016a). The state of women in academic medicine: The pipeline and pathways to leadership, 2015-2016. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2016b). Table A–9. Matriculants to U.S. medical schools by race, selected combinations of race/ethnicity and sex, 2013–2014 through 2016–2017. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/download/321474/data/factstablea9.pdf

Biernat

(2012). Stereotypes and shifting standards: Forming, communicating, and translating person impressions. In Devine

Plant

(Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 45, pp. 1-59). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-394286–9.00001-9

Biernat

Danaher

(2012). Interpreting and reacting to feedback in stereotype-relevant performance domains. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 271-276. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.08.010

Biernat

Kobrynowicz

(1997). Gender- and race-based standards of competence: Lower minimum standards but higher ability standards for devalued groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 544-557. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.3.544

Biernat

Manis

Nelson

T. E.

(1991). Stereotypes and standards of judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 485-499. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.4.485

Biernat

Tocci

M. J.

Williams

J. C.

(2012). The language of performance evaluations: Gender-based shifts in content and consistency of judgment. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 186-192. doi:10.1177/1948550611415693

Catalyst. (2018). Quick take: Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem

10.

Cohen

G. L.

Steele

C. M.

Ross

L. D.

(1999). The mentor’s dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1302-1318. doi:10.1177/0146167299258011

11.

Committee on Bridges to Independence, Board on Life Sciences, National Research Council of the National Academies. (2005). Bridges to independence: Fostering the independence of new investigators in biomedical research. Washington, DC: The National Research Academies Press.

12.

Crocker

Voelkl

Testa

Major

(1991). Social stigma: The affective consequences of attributional ambiguity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 218-228. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.2.218

13.

DeCastro

Sambuco

Ubel

P. A.

Stewart

Jagsiand

(2013). Batting 300 is good: Perspectives of faculty researchers and their mentors on rejection, resilience, and persistence in academic medical careers. Academic Medicine, 88, 1-8. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e318285f3c0

14.

Deci

E. L.

(1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York, NY: Plenum Press. doi:1007/978-1-4613-4446-9

15.

Dweck

C. S.

Davidson

Nelson

Enna

(1978). Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. the contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and III. an experimental analysis. Developmental Psychology, 14, 268-276. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.14.3.268

16.

Eblen

M. K.

Wagner

R. W.

RoyChoudhury

Patel

K. C.

Pearson

(2016). How criterion scores predict the overall impact score and funding outcomes for National Institutes of Health peer-reviewed applications. PLoS ONE, 11(6), e0155060. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155060

17.

Fassiotto

Hamel

E. O.

Correll

Grewal

Lavori

. . . Valantine

(2016). Women in academic medicine: Measuring stereotype threat among junior faculty. Journal of Women’s Health, 25, 292-298. doi:10.1089/jwh.2015.5380

18.

Gerin

Kapelewski Kinkade

Page

N. L.

(2018). Writing the NIH grant proposal: A step-by-step guide. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

19.

Ginther

D. K.

Kahn

Schaffer

W. T.

(2016). Gender, race/ethnicity, and National Institutes of Health R01 Research Awards: Is there evidence of a double bind for women of color? Academic Medicine, 9, 1098-1107. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001278

20.

Ginther

D. K.

Schaffer

W. T.

Schnell

Masimore

Liu

Haak

L. L.

Kington

(2011). Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards. Science, 333, 1015-1019. doi:10.1126/science.1196783

21.

Gold

K. J.

(2017). The allure of tenure. Academic Medicine, 92, 1371-1372. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001875

22.

Hall

A. K.

Mills

S. L.

Lund

P. K.

(2017). Clinician-investigator training and the need to pilot new approaches to recruiting and retaining this workforce. Academic Medicine, 92, 1382-1389. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001859

23.

Hayes

A. F.

(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford.

24.

Holliday

Griffith

K. A.

De Castro

Stewart

Ubel

Jagsi

(2015). Gender differences in resources and negotiation among highly motivated physician-scientists. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30, 401-407. doi:10.1007/s11606-014-2988–5

25.

Hoyt

C. L.

Aguilar

Kaiser

C. R.

Blascovich

Lee

(2007). The self-protective and undermining effects of attributional ambiguity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 884-893. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2006.10.013

26.

Jagsi

Motomura

A. R.

Griffith

K. A.

Rangarajan

Ubel

P. A.

(2009). Sex differences in attainment of independent funding by career development awardees. Annals of Internal Medicine, 151, 804-811. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-151-11-200912010-00009

27.

Jeffe

D. B.

Yan

Andriole

D. A.

(2012). Do research activities during college, medical school, and residency mediate racial/ethnic disparities in full-time faculty appointments at U.S. Medical schools? Academic Medicine, 87, 1582-1593. doi:10.1007/s10900-015-0148-4

28.

Kaatz

Dattalo

Regner

Filut

Carnes

(2016). Patterns of feedback on the bridge to independence: A qualitative thematic analysis of NIH Mentored Career Development Award application critiques. Journal of Women’s Health, 25, 78-90. doi:10.1089/jwh.2015.5254

29.

Kaatz

Lee

Y.-G.

Potvien

Magua

Filut

Bhattacharya

. . . Carnes

(2016). Analysis of NIH R01 application critiques, impact and criteria scores: Does the sex of the principal investigator make a difference? Academic Medicine, 91, 1080-1088. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001272

30.

Kaatz

Magua

Zimmerman

D. R.

Carnes

(2015). A quantitative linguistic analysis of National Institutes of Health R01 application critiques from investigators at one institution. Academic Medicine, 90, 69-75. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000442

31.

Kahn

Ginther

(2017, June). Women and STEM (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 23525). doi:10.3386/w23525

32.

Kobrynowicz

Biernat

(1997). Decoding subjective evaluations: How stereotypes provide shifting standards. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33, 579-601. doi:10.1006/jesp.1997.1338

33.

Kolehmainen

Carnes

(2018). Who resembles a scientific leader—Jack or Jill? How implicit bias could influence research grant funding. Circulation, 137, 769-770. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.031295

34.

Ley

T. J.

Hamilton

B. H.

(2008). The gender gap in NIH grant applications. Science, 322, 1472-1474. doi:10.1126/science.1165878

35.

Lindemann

(2018). What’s the average survey response rate? [2018 benchmark]. Retrieved from https://surveyanyplace.com/average-survey-response-rate

36.

London

Downey

Romero-Canyas

Rattan

Tyson

(2012). Gender-based rejection sensitivity and academic self-silencing in women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 961-979. doi:10.1037/a0026615

37.

Major

O’Brien

L. T.

(2005). The social psychology of stigma. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 393-421. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070137

38.

Miller

D. I.

Eagly

A. H.

Linn

M. C.

(2015). Women’s representation in science predicts national gender-science stereotypes: Evidence from 66 nations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 631-644. doi:10.1037/edu0000005

39.

Moss-Racusin

Dovidio

J. F.

Brescoll

V. L.

Graham

M. J.

Handelsman

(2012). Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109, 16474-16479. doi;10.1073/pnas.1211286109

40.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Table 318.30: Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor’s Degrees conferred by postsecondary Institutions, by sex of student and discipline division: 2013-14. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_318.30.asp

41.

National Institutes of Health. (2014). Physician-Scientist workforce (PSW) report 2014. Retrieved from https://report.nih.gov/Workforce/PSW/appendix_iv_a1_3.aspx

42.

National Institutes of Health. (2018a). Applicant guidance: Next steps: “Your application was reviewed; what to do next…” Retrieved from https://grants.nih.gov/grants/next_steps.htm

43.

National Institutes of Health. (2018b). Contacting staff at the NIH institutes and centers. Retrieved from https://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to-apply-application-guide/resources/contacting-nih-staff.htm

44.

National Institutes of Health. (2018c). NIH research project grant program (R01). Retrieved from https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r01.htm

45.

National Institutes of Health. (2018d). Research career development awards. Retrieved from https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/career-development

46.

National Institutes of Health. (2018e). R01-equivalent grants: Success rates, by gender and type of application. Retrieved from http://report.nih.gov/NIHDatabook/Charts/Default.aspx?showm=Y&chartId=178&catId=15

47.

National Institutes of Health. (2018f). R01-equivalent grants: Awards by gender and percentage to women. Retrieved from https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/172

48.

National Institutes of Health, Center for Scientific Review. (2018). What happens to your application during and after review? Retrieved from https://public.csr.nih.gov/ForApplicants/InitialReviewResultsAndAppeals/applicationduringafterreview

49.

National Institutes of Health, Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce. (2012). Draft report of the Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce. Retrieved from http://acd.od.nih.gov/Diversity%20in%20the%20Biomedical%20Research%20Workforce%20Report.pdf

50.

Nonnemaker

(2000). Women physicians in academic medicine: New insights from cohort studies. New England Journal of Medicine, 342, 399-405. doi:10.1056/NEJM200002103420606

51.

Noonan

(2017, November 13). Women in STEM: 2017 update (Economics and Statistics Administration Issue Brief #06-17). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED590906.pdf

52.

Park

L. E.

Kondrak

C. L.

Ward

D. E.

Streamer

(2018). Positive feedback from male authority figures boosts women’s math outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 359-383. doi:10.1177/0146167217741312

53.

Parsons

J. E.

Adler

Meece

J. L.

(1984). Sex differences in achievement: A test of alternate theories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 26-43. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.46.1.26

54.

Pohlhaus

J. R.

Jiang

Wagner

R. M.

Schaffer

W. T.

Pinn

V. W.

(2011). Sex differences in application, success, and funding rates for NIH extramural programs. Academic Medicine, 86, 759-767. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e31821836ff

55.

Preacher

K. J.

Hayes

A. F.

(2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879-891. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.879

56.

Purdie-Vaughns

Eibach

R. P.

(2008). Intersectional invisibility: The distinctive advantages and disadvantages of multiple subordinate-group identities. Sex Roles, 59, 377-391.

57.

Rastogi Kalyani

Yeh

H.-C.

Clark

J. M.

Weisfeldt

M. L.

Choi

MacDonald

S. M

. (2015). Sex differences among Career Development Awardees in the attainment of independent research funding in a department of medicine. Journal of Women’s Health, 24, 933-941. doi:10.1089/jwh.2015.5331

58.

Reid

P. T.

Comas-Diaz

(1990). Gender and ethnicity: Perspectives on dual status. Sex Roles, 22, 397-408.

59.

Roberts

Nolen-Hoeksema

(1989). Sex differences in reactions to evaluative feedback. Sex Roles, 21, 725-747. doi:10.1007/BF00289805

60.

Roberts

Nolen-Hoeksema

(1994). Gender comparisons in responsiveness to others’ evaluations in achievement settings. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 221-240. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00452.x

61.

Smith

(2008). Does gender influence only survey participation? A record-linkage analysis of university faculty online survey response behavior (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED501717). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED501717.pdf

62.

Steele

C. M.

(2010). Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/867315643?accountid=14556

63.

Steinberg

(2004). Obtaining a research grant: The granting agency’s view. In Darley

J. M.

Zanna

M. P.

Roediger III

H. L.

(Eds.), The compleat academic: A career guide (2nd ed., pp. 153-168). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

64.

Yeager

D. S.

Purdie-Vaughns

Garcia

Apfel

Brzustoski

Master

. . . Cohen

G. L.

(2014). Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 804-824. doi:10.1037/a0033906

65.

Zhang

Lee

E. S.

Kenworthy

C. A.

Chiang

Holaday

Spencer

D. J.

. . . Sánchez

J. P.

(2017). Southeast and East Asian American medical students’ perceptions of careers in academic medicine. Journal of Career Development. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0894845317740225

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.41 MB

Gender,Race,and Grant Reviews: Translating and Responding to Research Feedback

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material