In this hybrid research seminar on Thursday 8th May 2025 at 12:00-13:00 CET, Dr. Giulio Marini — a Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Catania, Italy, — will present his research titled "Shielding the few and perpetrating the pattern for the many: interaction of gender discrimination and status in predicting promotion".
Abstract:
This study examines the interplay of gender, acquisition of prestigious individual grants, status and academic promotion. Two individual grants are considered: the European Research Council (ERC) grant and the Italian “Futuro in Ricerca di Base” (FIRB) scheme. The awardees of these two grants are compared to non-awardees. To test for gender discrimination, promotion (logistic regression) and the velocity of promotion (OLS) are predicted in terms of gender and other relevant control variables (e.g., research performance). A strong credentialism effect is identified since grant acquisition is observed to predict promotions, regardless of research performance. The findings show that while those with grants, especially ERC grants, do not experience gender discrimination, a gender promotion gap is evident among non-awardees. Therefore, it is inferred that what confers status (a prestigious individual grant) shields from gender discrimination. In other words, it is status – not performance – that protects women from discrimination. However, since status is subject to power law distribution, most of the population remains vulnerable to persistent discrimination.
The zoom link to join the seminar online can be found here. This event is open to the public. All who are interested to this topic are very welcome to join the seminar. After the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion.
For any queries related to our UNU-MERIT Seminar Series, please contact Sneha Marydas and Cecilia Seri by sending an email to seminars@merit.unu.edu.
