Several new articles have come out this February on the
leaky pipeline problem and the impacts of motherhood on women in science and
engineering.
Deborah Kaminski and Cheryl Geisler examined the effects of
gender on faculty retention using a survival analysis in a Science publication (CHE
summary here). They found that in STEM fields overall, gender did not
affect faculty retention or promotion rates during the first 10 years of
employment. However, when they examined
specific disciplines, they found that that in mathematics, women remain in
academic positions for significantly less time than men. Although Kaminiski and
Geisler believe that their conclusions indicate that STEM departments are headed
toward gender parity, they also point out that due to the inertia caused by
long faculty careers, it will take decades for the number of female faculty to
reflect the number of women in the hiring pool and it may take as long as 100 years
before women commonly represent 50% of the faculty in STEM departments.
In an article
in American Scientist this month, Wendy
Williams and Stephen Ceci provide an in depth review of the role of motherhood (or,
in some cases, the desire for it) in causing the leaky pipeline. The article is
complex and well-worth a read, but argues that of the most-often cited causes
of the leaky pipeline (ability differences, career and lifestyle differences,
sex discrimination), career preferences and lifestyle differences, especially
the desire to have children, are the most important reasons that women leave
the academic career trajectory at higher rates than men.
Citations
Kaminski D and Geisler C. 2012. Survival Analysis of Faculty
Retention in Science and Engineering by Gender. Science. 335: 864.
Williams WM and Ceci SJ. 2012. When Scientists Choose
Motherhood. American Scientist. http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2012/2/when-scientists-choose-motherhood/1.
Accessed 2/22/2012.
