Gender and Excellence in the making

Why are there so few women among scientists considered “excellent”? Excellence is not a naturally given variable. It is produced by a social screening process that uses specific standards to measure for specific abilities. This process may however be biased. This paper presents a simple graphic model for the production of excellence and examines its properties under different assumptions on the abilities that are relevant and the adequate standards to measure them. The conclusion is that the definition of excellence and its creation are the result of subjective as well as objective factors, and therefore contested terrain. Who is considered “excellent” depends on gender relations in the scientific community and in society at large. To complete the argument, this paper introduces an additional model of scientific engagement that explains why more women than men may end up outside the scientific network.