The Knowledge Creation Capability of Female Scientists is Neck and Neck with Male Scientists

Abstract

Drawing on knowledge creation capability in the Science of Science, this paper aims to determine scientists' knowledge creation capability (KCC) and figure out whether there is any gender gap in that. We construct a career matrix to compute KCC of scientists in Economics, Astronomy, and Computer Science each year, from the perspective of knowledge source and diffusion. We find that male scientists' KCC is not significantly different from that of female scientists, and the two groups of scientists have the same KCC distribution. In the first 10 years of their academic careers, female scientists have higher KCC than male scientists but have lower KCC in the 15 to 40 years. After controlling a series of confounders, it's found that female scientists have higher KCC than male scientists, even though there is not much of a difference in KCC. The results remain the same after we perform a robustness check.