The Internet's effect on women's coauthoring rates and academic job market decisions: The case of political science

The late 1990s saw the introduction and spread of the Internet and email. For social scientists, these technologies lowered communication costs and made inter-department collaboration much easier. Using women in political science as a case study, we show that this change has disproportionately affected women in two ways. First, women have increased the rate at which they co-author journal articles faster than their male counterparts. Second, the lowered communication costs have made women more willing to take jobs at smaller departments because it is now easier to work with colleagues at other universities.

Research highlights► We study the Internet's effect on academics by gender in political science. ► We examine the Internet's impact on coauthoring and academic job decision. ► Women's rate of co-authoring journal articles has increased faster than men's. ► Female academics more willing to take jobs at smaller departments.