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# Sex Bias in Graduate Admissions: Data from Berkeley

## Details

**Authors** P. J. Bickel, E. A. Hammel, J. W. O'Connell

**Year** 1975

**Publisher** Science

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Statistics

**Secondary disciplines** Sociology, Education

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.187.4175.398) 
10.1126/science.187.4175.398

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Examination of aggregate data on graduate admissions to the University of California, Berkeley, for fall 1973 shows a clear but misleading pattern of bias against female applicants. Examination of the disaggregated data reveals few decision-making units that show statistically significant departures from expected frequencies of female admissions, and about as many units appear to favor women as to favor men. If the data are properly pooled, taking into account the autonomy of departmental decision making, thus correcting for the tendency of women to apply to graduate departments that are more difficult for applicants of either sex to enter, there is a small but statistically significant bias in favor of women. The graduate departments that are easier to enter tend to be those that require more mathematics in the undergraduate preparatory curriculum. The bias in the aggregated data stems not from any pattern of discrimination on the part of admissions committees, which seem quite fair on the whole, but apparently from prior screening at earlier levels of the educational system. Women are shunted by their socialization and education toward fields of graduate study that are generally more crowded, less productive of completed degrees, and less well funded, and that frequently offer poorer professional employment prospects.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To determine whether the apparent bias against women in aggregate graduate admissions at Berkeley reflected discrimination by admitting units.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Graduate admissions data for fall 1973 at the University of California, Berkeley, disaggregated by decision-making unit (department).

### How they did it (methods)

Comparison of aggregate admissions rates with disaggregated departmental rates, and pooling of the data with account taken of departmental autonomy in decision making.

### What they found (results)

Aggregate data showed a misleading bias against female applicants, but disaggregated departmental data showed few significant departures and about as many units favoring women as men, and properly pooled data showed a small, statistically significant bias in favor of women.

## Commentary

### In short

A whole (the aggregate) displays a pattern opposite to that of its parts (the departments), and the pattern emerges from how applicants relate to departments through their choice of field.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

**Added** 2026-10-03

**How to cite this** P. J. Bickel, E. A. Hammel, J. W. O'Connell (1975). Sex Bias in Graduate Admissions: Data from Berkeley. Science.