Photos in Science and Nature predominantly feature men

Gender stereotypes about women in science persist today despite women making up at least half of STEM undergraduates. The reasons for these stereotypes are not clear but may be due to a lack of female role models being portrayed in media.

Magazines like Science and Nature are a window into scientific culture, and the content in these journals should reflect what scientific role models look like.

We looked at how women and men are portrayed in these journals and found that women were grossly underrepresented. General interest content and associated stock photos were biased toward featuring male scientists. Gender bias was also apparent in authorship of peer-reviewed articles; women accounted for ≤ 15% of all corresponding authors that published in 2016.

Despite societal awareness over gender issues, unconscious bias persists. These magazines are perpetrating a role model that is predominantly, and sometimes exclusively, male.

Read the full paper — What a scientist looks like: Portraying gender in the scientific media by Becky Loverock and Miranda M. Hart on the FACETS website.