Earlier this year, Research Councils UK published data on the ages and sex of people who applied for grants between 2010 and 2013. There was a large discrepancy between the sexes in the success rate for large grants: men, on average, had a 38 per cent chance of success; for women, it was 24 per cent. The trends were more mixed for standard grants, but men almost always had a higher success rate than women.
RCUK also published the gender composition of its peer-review panels, councils, boards and committees. Startlingly, the strategic bodies were, on average, 73 per cent male. The composition of the peer-review panels was a little better (69 per cent male), with some councils, such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, edging closer to even (58 and 52 per cent male, respectively).
Are these two findings linked? Does a male-dominated panel rule disproportionately in favour of men? After all, the ESRC, which has the most even-gendered panels, has bucked the trend, giving women a higher success rate for 2 of the past 3 years. But association is not causation. To say there’s a strong causal link would be to do the research councils and the panelists a disservice. From my time at the AHRC, I know that the council strives to be fair and to use excellence as the primary criterion in deciding on applications.
