The Economix blog at The New York Times summarizes a study on science’s “leaky pipeline”. Unsurprisingly, the study found that women are more likely to leave science due to the pressures of family life. Here are some of the most disturbing statistics from the summary:
- married women with young children are 35% less likely to enter tenure-track positions post-Ph.D. than similar married men with young children
- married women with young children are 28% less likely than unmarried women without children to achieve tenure in science
- women with young children are 27% less likely than men with children to receive tenure once they are in a tenure track
- single women without children are about as successful as married men with children in attaining tenure track jobs
This last statistic has the frightening implication that to be successful in science a woman must forego marriage and children.
You’ll find a pdf of the original study here.
Somewhat confusingly, the Economix blog has a second post on the same study here.