Leadership and Participation in NASA's Explorer-Class Missions
Joan Centrella, Michael New, and Meagan Thompson

TL;DR
This study analyzes gender diversity in NASA's Explorer-class mission proposals from 2008-2016, revealing significant underrepresentation of women in leadership and science team roles compared to the field.
Contribution
It provides the first detailed quantitative analysis of gender participation in NASA's Explorer-class mission proposals over multiple solicitations.
Findings
Women constitute only 14% of science team members.
Eighteen proposals had no female science team members.
Participation of women is significantly below their overall representation in astronomy.
Abstract
We have conducted a data study of leadership and participation in NASA's Astrophysics Explorer-class missions for the nine solicitations issued during the period 2008-2016, using gender as a marker of diversity. During this time, 102 Principal Investigators (PIs) submitted Explorer-class proposals; only four of these PIs were female. Among the 102 PIs, there were 61 unique PIs overall; of these, just three were female. The percentage of females in science teams in these proposals ranges from a low of 10% to a high of 19% across the various solicitations. Combining data from all these Explorer-class proposals, we find that the overall participation by females in science teams is 14%. Eighteen of the Explorer-class proposals had zero females in science roles, and this includes science teams with as many as 28 members. These results demonstrate that participation by women in the leadership…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCareer Development and Diversity · Space exploration and regulation · Technology Assessment and Management
