Gender Representation in Russian Academic Journals

Abstract

Olga Krasnyak – PhD in History, a Lecturer in International Studies, Underwood International College, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Еmail: olga.k@yonsei.ac.kr

DOI: 10.17323/727-0634-2017-15-4-617-628

Representation of women in academic outputs is an important indicator of a country’s gender equality. Starting in the 1950s, extensive scientific growth in the Soviet Union came with the establishment of a large number of academic institutions and journals. However, this massive rise in academic production has not been accompanied by an increase in equality between women and men in terms of publications; the sciences and the humanities remain dominated by men. This study focuses on gender disparity in domestic academic productivity. The availability of online archives and a long history of publications were crucial factors in choosing specific journals for this study. Collected data include the output statistics of the following journals: for humanities, Questions of History (1955–2013) and Russian Literature (1958–2014); for sciences, Acoustical Physics (1955–2014), Mathematical Notes (1967–2014), and Biomedical Chemistry (1956–2014). In addition, a list of publications of the journal Questions of Psychology available in the period between 1980 and 1999 was also taken into account. The data show the percentage of female academic outputs and its changes through the decades, taking into account the socioeconomic, political, and historical background. A brief analysis of the scientific productivity reveals underrepresentation of women authored publications in mathematics (7 %), physics (11 %), and history (15 %). On the other hand, psychology (40 %), biochemistry (39 %), and literature (28 %) show better rates of gender equality. The article provides an explanation of this phenomena. During decades, a slight increase of women authored outputs gradually occurred in every scientific discipline, although this share was still low overall. The outcomes were compared with gender representation in sciences and humanities in other countries, which allows the conclusion that gender disparity in terms of the academic output in analysed Russian journals is not unique but follows global trends.