Introducing Excellence: Gender and the Introductions of Faculty Finalist Candidates in Engineering Job Talks

Abstract

Professional cultures—distinct systems of meanings, rituals, and hierarchies—can reinforce social closure processes and can be a potent source of social inequality. This paper examines gender inequality in the faculty hiring process in academic engineering. This is a theoretically useful case in which a strong professional culture with meritocratic ideals exists alongside the underrepresentation of women. Previous studies of faculty hiring often find that women are devalued, yet few studies examine this process in real job searches nested within professional communities. We analyze the introductions of 175 finalist candidates by department faculty hosts, just before the candidates begin their high stakes job talks on their original research. We find that, compared to statements introducing men candidates, those introducing women are less likely to acknowledge and proclaim their research excellence, and they are more likely to contain irrelevant and inappropriate content. We argue that the professional cultural schema of scientific excellence is culturally masculine and can either highlight or obscure the introducers’ framing of candidates’ research competence, potentially anchoring audience expectations. The job talk ritual also helps socialize early career engineers into professional norms and understandings. We develop theoretical and policy implications for the study of gender barriers to employment in and beyond academic STEM.