Female Scientists Face Visibility Gap

Women’s visibility in the public sphere remains a central issue for gender equality. A new study by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) reveals that female scientists are underrepresented in German media coverage on scientific risk topics. Although women make up around 31 percent of researchers in the fields examined, only 18 percent of the experts quoted in leading media were women.

The study however, recently published in Public Understanding of Science, found no evidence of deliberate discrimination by journalists. Instead, factors such as academic rank, research productivity, and scientific impact were decisive for media visibility. Since women in science less frequently occupy top positions and generally achieve lower publication and reputation scores, this is also reproduced in press coverage.

Journalism mirrors academic hierarchies

“Our study suggests that the underrepresentation of female scientists is not media sexism, but rather reflects the structural inequalities of the science system itself,” says Dr. Melanie Leidecker-Sandmann from the Department of Science Communication at the Institute of Technology Futures at KIT. “While journalism does not appear to actively reinforce these inequalities, it also does little to mitigate them.”

The analysis covered 4,860 articles published between 1995 and 2020 in four leading German outlets, focusing on eight science-related risk topics, including Ebola, glyphosate, and COVID-19. The research team systematically coded the gender, position, and type of statement of approximately 1,800 scientists cited, and supplemented this with bibliometric data such as publication records and h-index scores.

jha, October 8, 2025