Gender imbalances in academia is found globally. Even though women earn the same

amount of PhD degrees the gender imbalance becomes more and more prominent at

higher academic levels. Karolinska Institute is a Swedish medical university where 28%

of the professors are female. This thesis aims to conclude if there is a gender imbalance

in terms of scientific production and research impact, measured in numbers of

publications or impact of publications, in Sweden. This thesis also aims to investigate if

this possible difference is dependent on the gender of the PI. Any difference should be

interpreted from an organizational perspective.

This is done through a case study of Karolinska Institute PhD students graduating in 2010

where 222 doctoral dissertations have been studied to investigate the productivity, in

terms of published papers, and impact, in terms of impact points and citations, of their

research within their fellow research community, of each PhD student during their PhD

studies.

The results show a trend where female students and students with a female PI are less

productive and impactful than their fellow students. Specifically, it shows that the group

of female students with a female PI have statistically significantly less publications than

the other groups and that the same group have statistically significantly less impact

points that female student with a male PI or male students with a female PI. The results

have then been interpreted with a focus on organizational theories.