Clifton Sara M, Hill Kaitlin, Karamchandani Avinash J, Autry Eric A, McMahon Patrick, Sun Grace
Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Chaos. 2019 Feb;29(2):023135. doi: 10.1063/1.5066450.
Women have become better represented in business, academia, and government over time, yet a dearth of women at the highest levels of leadership remains. Sociologists have attributed the leaky progression of women through professional hierarchies to various cultural and psychological factors, such as self-segregation and bias. Here, we present a minimal mathematical model that reveals the relative role that bias and homophily (self-seeking) may play in the ascension of women through professional hierarchies. Unlike previous models, our novel model predicts that gender parity is not inevitable, and deliberate intervention may be required to achieve gender balance in several fields. To validate the model, we analyze a new database of gender fractionation over time for 16 professional hierarchies. We quantify the degree of homophily and bias in each professional hierarchy, and we propose specific interventions to achieve gender parity more quickly.
随着时间的推移，女性在商业、学术界和政府中的代表性有所提高，但在最高领导层中女性仍然匮乏。社会学家将女性在职业等级制度中的缓慢晋升归因于各种文化和心理因素，如自我隔离和偏见。在此，我们提出一个极简数学模型，揭示偏见和同质性（自我寻求）在女性通过职业等级制度晋升过程中可能发挥的相对作用。与以往模型不同，我们的新模型预测性别平等并非必然，可能需要刻意干预才能在多个领域实现性别平衡。为验证该模型，我们分析了一个新的数据库，该数据库包含16种职业等级制度随时间变化的性别比例情况。我们量化了每种职业等级制度中的同质性和偏见程度，并提出了具体干预措施以更快实现性别平等。
