Investigating writing style as a contributor to gender gaps in science and technology

TL;DR

This study explores how gender differences in writing styles, particularly the use of involved features, may influence gender gaps in scientific evaluation and recognition.

Contribution

It introduces a framework for analyzing linguistic styles in scientific texts and demonstrates gender-based stylistic differences in academic papers and patents.

Findings

Women use more involved features in their writing.

Texts with more involved features are cited more by women.

Gendered writing styles may impact evaluation biases.

Abstract

A growing stream of research finds that scientific contributions are evaluated differently depending on the gender of the author. In this article, we consider whether gender differences in writing styles - how men and women communicate their work - may contribute to these observed gender gaps. We ground our investigation in a framework for characterizing the linguistic style of written text, with two sets of features - informational (i.e., features that emphasize facts) and involved (i.e., features that emphasize relationships). Using a large sample of academic papers and patents, we find significant differences in writing style by gender, with women using more involved features in their writing. Papers and patents with more involved features also tend to be cited more by women. Our findings suggest that scientific text is not devoid of personal character, which could contribute to bias in evaluation, thereby compromising the norm of universalism as a foundational principle of science.