Gender and career opportunities in science

In recent years, many quantitative studies have been published regarding gender differences in publication output between men and women. This trend is referred toby Cole & Zuckerman (1984) as the productivity puzzle. In order to find out why men publish more than women and how this affects their career opportunities, this paper investigates the phenomenon in a qualitative manner through the gendered organization theory. Findings indicate that the increasing pressure on publication output disadvantages women because they have a harder time dealing with competition than men. It also became apparent that women still suffer from the existence of traditional gender roles, giving birth and stigmatizing by their environment. Another explanation has been found in men and women’s different networking strategies, their efforts to make themselves visible in the scientific field and the alleged existence of an old boys’ network.