Shielding the few and perpetrating the pattern for the many: interaction of gender discrimination and status in predicting promotion

This study examines the interplay of gender, acquisition of prestigious individual grants, status, and academic promotion. Two individual grants are considered: the European Research Council (ERC) grant and the Italian “Futuro in Ricerca di Base” (FIRB) scheme. The awardees of these two grants are compared to non-awardees. To test for gender discrimination, promotion (logistic regression) and the velocity of promotion (OLS) are predicted in terms of gender and other relevant control variables (e.g., research performance). A strong credentialism effect is identified since grant acquisition is observed to predict promotions, regardless of research performance. The findings show that while those with grants, especially ERC grants, do not experience gender discrimination, a gender promotion gap is evident among non-awardees. Therefore, it is inferred that what confers status (a prestigious individual grant) shields from gender discrimination. In other words, it is status – not performance – that protects women from discrimination. However, since status is subject to power law distribution, most of the population remains vulnerable to persistent discrimination.