The gendered structure of science does not transpire in an experimental vacuum

Abstract

An article recently published in Quantitative Science Studies proposed an apparently elegant solution to go past the alleged limits of “observational approaches” and “simple statistical associations” when it comes to the study of gender disparities in scientific funding (Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menéndez, 2023, p. 594). A randomized experiment, it was claimed, would finally allow us to “measure the effects of a cause,” that is “the effect of the gender of the principal investigator (PI) on the score of a research funding application” (Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menéndez, 2023, p. 594). And the finding of this trial was as clear as its formulation: there was no indication whatsoever that women’s applications had been evaluated differently than that of men.