Male homophily in South American herpetology: one of the major processes underlying the gender gap in publications

GROSSO, JIMENA; FRATANI, JESSICA; FONTANARROSA, GABRIELA; CHULIVER, MARIANA; DUPORT-BRU, ANA SOFÍA; SCHNEIDER, ROSÍO GABRIELA ; CASAGRANDA, MARÍA DOLORES; FERRARO, DAIANA PAOLA; VICENTE, NATALIN; SALICA, MARÍA JOSÉ; PEREYRA, LAURA; MEDINA, C.D., REGINA GABRIELA; BESSA, CARLA; SEMHAN, ROMINA; VERA, MIRIAM CORINA

AMPHIBIA-REPTILIA

BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Lugar: Leiden; Año: 2021

0173-5373

The growing number of gender studies encourages more refined analyzes and greater conceptualization of the underlying processes. In Herpetology, previous studies have described gender disparities, and a scrutiny of individual interactions may reveal the mechanisms modelling the global pattern. In this contribution we modeled a co-authorship network, a previously unexplored methodology for gender studies in this discipline, in addition to a broad analysis with classic bibliometric analysis of the discipline. Co-authorship networks were modelled for two South American journals because this geo-political location presents the best gender balance within general scientific communities. However, we found a pattern of male preferential connections (male homophily) that marginalizes women and maintains the gender gap, at both regional and global scales. This interpretation arises from results coming from multiple analyses, such as the homophily index of the networks, the lower female representation in articles than expected in a non-gender biased environment, the decrease of female co-authors when the article leader is a man, and the extreme masculinization of the editorial boards. The homophilic dynamics of the publication process reveals that a supposedly impartial academic activity is pervasive to unbalanced power relationships. Personal interactions shape the collective experience, tracing back to the Feminist Theory?s axiom: ?the personal is political?.