Science and Engineering Ph.D. Students’ Career Outcomes, by Gender

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

We examine differences in the careers of men and women Ph.D.s from two major European universities. Having performed regression analysis, we find that women are more likely than men to be employed in public administration when the alternatives are either academia or industry. Between the latter two alternatives, women are more likely to be employed in academia. These gender differences persist after accounting for Ph.D.s’ and their supervisors’ characteristics. Gender gaps are smaller for Ph.D.s with large research outputs and for those who conducted applied research. Restricting the analysis to Ph.D.s who pursued postdoc training, women are less likely than men to be employed in highly ranked universities, even after controlling for their research outputs. Finally, we find gender differences in Ph.D.s’ appointment to professorship, which are explained by the Ph.D.s’ publication output and the quality of their postdoc training.

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Science and Engineering Ph.D. Students’ Career Outcomes, by Gender

August Science and Engineering Ph.D. Students' Career Outcomes, by Gender Annamaria Conti ) 0 1 Fabiana Visentin ) 0 1 0 1 Scheller College of Business and RCEA, Georgia Institute of Technology , Atlanta , Georgia , United States of America, 2 Chair of Economics and Management of Innovation, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , Lausanne, Vaud , Switzerland 1 Editor: Daniele Fanelli, Stanford University , UNITED STATES We examine differences in the careers of men and women Ph.D.s from two major European universities. Having performed regression analysis, we find that women are more likely than men to be employed in public administration when the alternatives are either academia or industry. Between the latter two alternatives, women are more likely to be employed in academia. These gender differences persist after accounting for Ph.D.s' and their supervisors' characteristics. Gender gaps are smaller for Ph.D.s with large research outputs and for those who conducted applied research. Restricting the analysis to Ph.D.s who pursued postdoc training, women are less likely than men to be employed in highly ranked universities, even after controlling for their research outputs. Finally, we find gender differences in Ph.D.s' appointment to professorship, which are explained by the Ph.D.s' publication output and the quality of their postdoc training. - Funding: Funding for work on this project by Fabiana Visentin came from the Swiss National Science Foundation, through grant number 100010_149931 / 1. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. RESEARCH ARTICLE In the US and in Europe, the participation of women in science has increased over time (Fig 1). Despite their increased participation, women in the US science context have been found to be less productive [1,2,3], to earn less [4,5], and to receive promotions later than men [6,7]. Moreover, women with postdoc training are more likely than men to find positions in the government and non-profit sectors as opposed to finding employment in academia [8,9]. Little is known, however, about the career patterns of European women in science. With the exception of Mairesse and Pezzoni’s (2015) analysis of French academic women’s promotion patterns, there is a limited understanding of European women’s employment choices after they receive their Ph.D.s [10]. This is an important gap if one considers that Europe is the second-largest producer of highly cited scientific articles, after the US [11]. In addition, in the US and Europe, it is still unclear how the characteristics of Ph.D. and postdoc trainings affect gender differences in career attainments. To fill these gaps, we use detailed information about Ph.D.s in science and engineering from two major European universities, one located in Sweden and the other in Switzerland. The organization of these universities is very similar to that of other European institutes of technology, Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Fig 1. Participation of women in science. Share of women doctorate recipients in the US (solid line) and share of women researchers in the higher education sector in EU-18 countries (dashed line). According to the definition provided by Eurostat, the higher education sector is composed of all universities, colleges of technology, and other institutes of post-secondary education. It also includes research institutes, experimental stations and clinics operating under the direct control of or administered by or associated with higher education establishments. Sources: US National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and Eurostat (Science and Technology Database, Statistics on Research and Development). including the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, the Eindhoven University of Technology, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. We have information about Ph.D.s’ employment outcomes after graduation and whether they pursued careers in academia (including research centers), industry, or public administration (including schools and teaching colleges). This is an important distinction in light of the fact that, at least in the US, an increasing number of Ph.D.s are considering careers outside of academia [12,13,14,15]. We find that women are more likely than men to be employed in public administration when the alternatives are either academia or industry. Moreover, they are more likely to be employed in academia than in industry. These differences persist after accounting for their publication outputs during their Ph.D., their involvement in applied projects, and their supervisors’ characteristics. The gender gap in the probability of being employed in public administration disappears when we compare men and women with large publication outputs. The gender gap in the probability of being employed in indust (...truncated)


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Annamaria Conti, Fabiana Visentin. Science and Engineering Ph.D. Students’ Career Outcomes, by Gender, PLOS ONE, 2015, Volume 10, Issue 8, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133177