der, by discipline, [by being] at research universities, and so forth?”
This panelist also recalls the panel as a whole being sensitive to bias.
He provided the example of a time when “someone remarked, ‘Hey,
two of the last three were not at major universities.’ And suddenly
somebody attended to that matter, and we said, ‘Yes, that is true.’ We
wanted to make sure we were not blindly ignoring those kinds of
things.”
Others focus on some of the more subtle ways that gender influ-
ences evaluation. For instance, one sociologist, citing the work of Pi-
erre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron on “strategies of relegation”
(or self-tracking) among working-class students, suggests that women
may be less likely to win fellowships because they deliberately choose
more traditional topics and “safer” professional strategies.^33 Another
woman, an anthropologist serving on the Society of Fellows panel,
notes that men interview much better than women; they are more at
ease. “[There is the] male interview style, [which is more] persuasive,
and the certain female interview style, not quite as pushy. It’s not
necessarily apologetic, but just not as strong. They seem not good
and that’s something we have to watch out for.” Alternatively, she
notes that women often lose points because they are perceived as too
aggressive, in line with findings that ambitious women are penalized
if they claim rewards for their achievements.^34 Indeed, studies indi-
cate that when men are assertive, their behavior is perceived as evi-
dence of great talent, but when women exhibit the same behavior,
they are seen as being too aggressive. Similarly, men and women who
engage in “self-promotion” are often viewed in different ways, with
the men admired for their accomplishments, while the women are
seen as arrogant.^35
Finally, indirect biases arise from the fact that women often privi-
lege qualitative research and constructivist epistemological approaches.
Elisabeth Clemens and her colleagues show that in sociology, women
are proportionately more likely than men to write books, especially
Considering Interdisciplinarity and Diversity / 223