Is Mainstream Psychological Research “Womanless” and “Raceless”? An Updated Analysis

In the late 20th century, mainstream psychological research was accused of being “womanless” and “raceless” by excluding women
and members of racial-ethnic minority groups and by interpreting their experiences as deviant from White male norms. The present
article provides an updated analysis of the state of psychological research by examining research published in 2007 in eight
prominent journals across four subdisciplines (N = 255). Two types of data were examined: (1) gender and racial-ethnic representation at the levels of editor, senior author,
and participant, and (2) the presence of biased assumptions in reporting tendencies. Representation was interpreted in relation
to relevant baselines drawn from U.S. data. Women and members of racial-ethnic minority groups do not appear to be underrepresented
as editors in mainstream psychology. However, women continue to be underrepresented as senior authors, and members of racial-ethnic
minority groups continue to be underrepresented as research participants. Furthermore, studies using predominately male or
White samples (vs. female or racial-ethnic minority samples) were less likely to indicate participant gender or race-ethnicity
in the title and marginally less likely to provide a rationale for including participants of only one social group, consistent
with the notion that reporting tendencies within mainstream psychological research continue to reflect assumptions that men
and Whites are more typical members of the category “human” than are women and racial-ethnic minorities. These findings indicate
that mainstream psychology has not yet reached social equity and that efforts to increase diversity and decrease subtle biases
should continue to be supported and funded.