The academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have long suffered from a lack of diversity. While in recent years there has been some progress in addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM subjects, other characteristics that have the potential to impact on equality of opportunity have received less attention. In this study, we surveyed 188 early career scientists (ECRs), defined as within 10 years of completing their PhD, in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, behaviour, and related disciplines. We examined associations between ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, sex, socioeconomic background, and disability, with measures of career progression, namely publication record, number of applications made before obtaining a postdoc, type of contract, and number of grant applications made. We also queried respondents on perceived barriers to progression and potential ways of overcoming them. Our key finding was that socioeconomic background and ethnicity were associated with measures of career progression. While there was no difference in the number of reported first‐authored papers on PhD completion, ethnic minority respondents reported fewer other‐authored papers. In addition, ECRs from a lower socioeconomic background were more likely to report being in teaching and research positions, rather than research‐only positions, the latter being perceived as more prestigious by some institutions. We discuss our findings in the context of possible inequality of opportunity. We hope that this study will stimulate wider discussion and help to inform strategies to address the underrepresentation of minority groups in the fields of ecology and evolution, and STEM subjects more widely.

中文翻译：

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打破壁垒？种族和社会经济背景对生态和进化领域早期职业发展的影响。

科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 学科长期以来一直缺乏多样性。虽然近年来在解决 STEM 科目中女性代表性不足的问题方面取得了一些进展，但其他可能影响机会平等的特征却很少受到关注。在这项研究中，我们调查了生态学、进化生物学、行为学和相关学科领域的 188 名早期职业科学家 (ECR)，定义为在完成博士学位后 10 年内。我们研究了种族、年龄、性取向、性别、社会经济背景和残疾之间的关联，以及职业发展的衡量标准，即发表记录、获得博士后之前的申请数量、合同类型和申请资助的数量。我们还询问了受访者对进步的感知障碍以及克服这些障碍的潜在方法。我们的主要发现是社会经济背景和种族与职业发展的衡量标准有关。虽然在完成博士学位时报告的第一作者论文数量没有差异，但少数民族受访者报告的其他作者论文较少。此外，来自较低社会经济背景的 ECR 更有可能担任教学和研究职位，而不是仅从事研究的职位，后者被一些机构认为更有声望。我们在机会不平等的背景下讨论我们的发现。