Gender Quotas or Girls’ Networks? Evidence from an Italian Research Selection

This article investigates the role of the gender composition of selection committees and connections in promoting women in research. Exploiting a newly collected data set on research recruitment processes to entry-level positions in a leading Italian research centre operating mainly in the hard sciences, the study finds that bias against women manifests itself at non-tenured entry level and is attenuated by the presence of a woman on the selection committee. However, the most important predictor for recruitment in the study is previous connections with the research centre, a mechanism which, due to the lower density of network links with the institute among female candidates, operates as a selection device discriminating against women. The results suggest that the gender of the committee members, network structure and type of recruitment must all be considered in approaching recruitment policy.