We analyzed funding patterns of 2.3 million NIH grants distributed among biomedical scientists in the U.S. universities from 1985 to 2017 to present new evidence that as the biomedical research communities become more gender-diversified, women scientists as a whole gain more grant resources. However, these additional resources are distributed unevenly. We find that more resources flow to senior than to junior women scientists. By unearthing within-group inequality in science funding and careers, we highlight a new mechanism explaining the disadvantages faced by younger generations of women scientists. Importantly, this mechanism may have been obscured against the backdrop of advances in overall funding for women biomedical scientists.
Waverly Ding (Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland); Christopher C. Liu (Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon), Beril Yalcinkaya (PhD candidate, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland), Andy S. Back (The University of Hong Kong)