"Careers Versus Children: How Childcare Affects the Academic Tenure-Track Gender Gap"
(Job Market Paper)
Abstract: Although women compose the majority of biological science Ph.D. recipients, those who have children are 7 percentage points less likely than their male peers to ever obtain a tenure-track position - leading to a mere 30 percent female among tenure-track faculty. Using the largest nationally representative survey of U.S. Ph.D. recipients, this paper examines how the precise timing of a biological science Ph.D.’s first child birth affects employment status and job characteristics by gender. I find no gender gap in tenure- track rates among individuals who never have children and among individuals before they have children. 9 percent of mothers temporarily leave the labor force after their first child is born; those who remain reduce working hours by 12 percent, compared to fathers who reduce by 6 percent. Mothers return to the labor force when their children reach school-age but shift away from tenure-track positions, leading to a 10 percentage point gender gap among tenure-track faculty with six-year-old children. However, mothers do not leave research occupations with closer to standard forty-hour work weeks, such as industry and non-tenure track positions. I conclude that short-term reductions in work to focus on childcare combined with a competitive profession requiring long hours leads to long-term reductions in promotions, increasing the gender gap at the top levels of academia.
“What’s Another Year? The Lengthening Training and Career Paths of Scientists”
Abstract: Lengthening doctorate and post-doctorate training allow STEM Ph.Ds. to persist in high-intensity academic research environments at the cost of significant lifetime earnings. Using the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) linked to the 1993-2015 longitudinal waves of the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR), I construct career paths for 156,089 research doctorate holders over six job types - postdoctoral resercher, tenure-track academic, non-tenure track academic, for-profit industry, non-profit, and government - and two employment statuses - unemployed and out of the labor force. Examining Ph.D. cohorts in four major science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from 1950 to the present, I find evidence that the increasingly prevalent postdoctoral position allow STEM Ph.Ds. to remain in high-intensity academic research positions, albeit not necessarily on the tenure-track. Since the 1960’s, a STEM Ph.D.’s probability of obtaining a tenure-track position has droppeed from 42.8% to 25.2%. Remaining in longer doctoral and postdoctoral appointments does not significantly improve one’s chances at a tenure-track position but does increase one’s chances of a permanent position at a research-intensive university. However, these research opportunities come at a cost of an approximately $3,700 deduction in undiscounted average of lifetime earnings. Taken together, STEM Ph.Ds. must weigh the non-pecuniary costs of remaining in academic research with this earnings loss to determine if postdoctoral positions are a worthwhile investment.
"Where are All the Scientists? Resources for Studying the Long-Term Careers of STEM Ph.Ds."
(2020 NBER-IFS Value of Medical Research White Paper)
Abstract: Despite the considerable time and federal funding poured into training scientists, little attention has been given to the role of graduate programs and postdoctoral appointments on future careers – even as STEM trainees spend longer time in these positions. Basic information – such as the number of postdoctoral researchers at each institution – has proven difficult to collect, and the relevant data is spread across various sources. Thus, to assist meta-researchers, this white paper compiles a list of available resources that can be used to study the long-term career outcomes of STEM Ph.Ds. It also identifies shortcomings in current data collection and possibilities for future research avenues.