  Gaining recognition as a physics person by peers is an important contributor
to undergraduate students' physics identity and their success in physics
courses. Previous research has separately demonstrated that women perceive less
recognition from peers than men in their physics courses (perceived
recognition) and that women receive fewer nominations from their peers as
strong in their physics course than men (received recognition). The
relationship between perceived and received peer recognition for men and women,
however, is not well understood. Here we test three plausible models for this
relationship. We conduct a large-scale, quantitative study of over 1,700
students enrolled in introductory physics courses at eight institutions in the
United States. We directly compare student gender, perceived recognition, and
received recognition, controlling for other student demographics and
course-level variability. Results show with high precision that, for students
receiving the same amount of recognition, and having the same race or
ethnicity, academic year, and major, women report significantly lower perceived
recognition than men. These findings offer important implications for testable
instructional interventions.
