Gender gap in professional entomology: Women are underrepresented in academia and the U.S. Government

Abstract

The majority of professional STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) scientists are still male, despite increasing levels of female graduates in those areas. Here, I show that, consistent with this pattern, females are significantly underrepresented in entomology positions in academia and the federal government. In both employment sectors, female share of positions also significantly decreases with increasing rank, while the reverse is true for men. At the highest federal government grade level occupied by entomologists, mean salary for females is significantly lower than for males. These results show that female entomologists, despite representing between 40 and 50% of doctoral graduates in the last 10 y, are employed at levels far below their share of graduates and, as such, are underemployed.