(Posted 3-8-00)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News Service Contact: Steve Gilliam, 336-334-5371
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"HALO" EFFECT AROUND WOMEN NOBEL LAUREATES
INCREASES WOMEN ENTERING SCIENCE CAREERS
By Steve Gilliam
GREENSBORO--Women Nobel Prize laureates as "superstars" in the sciences?
That notion is not as farfetched as it may sound, according to a new study which examines major factors prompting women to enter science careers. The research shows an increase of approximately three percent in the numbers of women entering doctoral programs and completing doctoral programs in the sciences have followed the announcements of women scientists winning the international awards.
"Our evidence indicates that after a female scientist receives a Nobel Prize, the enrollment number increases about three percent," said Dr. Albert N. Link, professor of economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "It is clear that there is a ‘halo effect' associated with the receipt of the prize. It is not surprising that fledgling scholars respond positively to visible role models."
The study, titled "Women in Science: An Exploratory Analysis of Trends in the United States," was published in the recent issue of the international journal Science and Public Policy. Link's coauthor was his daughter, Jamie R. Link, a senior chemistry major at Princeton University.
For more than a decade, policymakers have been concerned about females being under- represented in the research scientist population. Women represent 51 percent of the population and 46 percent of the workforce in the United States, yet only receive one-third of the doctoral degrees in sciences awarded at U.S. institutions, the study reports.
While the percentage of women receiving doctoral degrees in the sciences amounts to one-third of those awarded, that number has increased dramatically in the past 30 years. It rose from 8.3 percent of the total number in 1966 to 34.2 percent in 1997. The science fields studied are chemistry, physics, astronomy, geosciences, oceanography, and the atmospheric, earth and ocean sciences.
The article also documents the importance of new programs that have provided funding for graduate studies, and also for research in the academic fields following completion of doctoral degrees.
The awarding of the Nobel Prizes each year in science is the event that captures the world's attention and focuses it accomplishments in science fields, said Link. "There have been dramatic and visible events over time that have drawn attention to the accomplishments of women in science," said Link. "The Nobel Prize is the most visible of these awards, by far, and women could be favorably influenced to enter and complete doctoral pursuits."
The authors draw on what is known as the "Superstar Effect," which was developed with reference to nationally visible artists. The hypothesis holds that an artist who breaks through to obtain national prominence holds a form of "monopoly" power over new entrants to the market, said Link. New artists seeking to rival that position are similar to new, small companies trying to rival an established firm with monopoly market power. Thus, recording or cinema stars who have this "halo" need not achieve the same level of artistic accomplishment after the fact because of their reputation, said Link.
"We believe that this same phenomenon could possibly apply to women in science," said Link. "After a female scientist ‘breaks through' to obtain national prominence, it may be the case that such an accomplishment confers a halo effect on female students in general; hence they are relatively more likely to enter and complete doctoral studies than before, owing to the belief that their probability of post-graduation success and recognition has increased." A woman has won or shared Nobel Prizes in science areas only 11 times since the creation of the honors in 1901. Marie Curie received the prizes in 1903 for physics and in 1911 for chemistry. Two-thirds of those awards, however, have been made since 1963.
In addition to Curie, other winners were as follows: 1935, Irene Joliot-Curie, chemistry; 1947, Gerty Radnitz Cori, physiology and medicine; 1963, Maria Goeppert Mayer, physics; 1964, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, chemistry; 1977, Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, physiology and medicine; 1983, Barbara McClintock, physiology and medicine; 1986, Rita Levi-Montalcini, physiology and medicine; 1988, Gertrude Elion, physiology and medicine; and 1995, Christiane Nusselein-Volhard, physiology and medicine.
Link has served on a panel examining labor force issues for the both the National Science Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences. Among several topics, the group discussed the issue of how to encourage women to enter science careers. The publicity received by female Nobel laureates, he said, may foster women scientists to serve as role models or mentors for their graduate and undergraduate students.
"There is no reason to believe that a ‘role model effect' does not exist in fields other than, say, sports or politics," said Link. "There is no doubt that there are students and faculty members who follow the Nobel Prizes, and an increase in mentoring activity could easily follow the announcement that a woman had won or shared the prize."
Link is editor of the international Journal of Technology Transfer. He has been an advisor on science and technology policy to the governments of Canada, Austria, New Zealand, France, Korea and Germany. He came to UNCG in 1982 and was previously head of the Department of Economics and director of the Master of Business Administration program in the Bryan School of Business and Economics.
He has served on advisory panels for the NSF, National Academy of Sciences and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He is author of numerous scholarly books in the area of technological change and economic growth. He has also received a number of research grants from the NSF and the U.S. Department of Commerce. He holds the Ph.D. degree from Tulane University and earlier served on the faculty of Auburn University before coming to UNCG.
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