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Diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion

Parenthood drives women out of science, US survey reveals

21 Feb 2019
Image of a mother and baby in the workplace
Baby blues: a study has found that 43% of new mothers had left a science-based career following their first child. (Courtesy: iStock/Steve-Debenport)

Almost half of women and a quarter of men leave full-time science-based careers after becoming a parent. That is according to a study that followed the careers of more than 4000 US-based science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals over an eight-year period. The research is the first to quantify the challenge of balancing parenting with STEM work and how it can contribute to the gender gap in science.

Women are underrepresented across STEM and face a variety of cultural and structural disadvantages to overcome. To investigate the specific effect of parenthood on STEM employment, sociologist Erin Cech from the University of Michigan and colleagues used data from a US-wide survey carried out by the National Science Foundation that followed full-time, initially childless STEM professionals over an eight-year period.

They were first surveyed about their circumstances in 2003 and then again in 2006, 2008 and 2010. The dataset included more than 3300 STEM professionals who remained childless over that period and around 800 who became parents within the first three years of the study period.

It is clear that without a significant change in culture and climate, policies alone will not eliminate all the major barriers for women

Miriam Deutsch

The study found that new parents were significantly less likely to remain in full-time STEM jobs than those that remained childless. Within three years of the birth or adoption of their first child, 42% of mothers and 15% of fathers had left full-time STEM employment. By the final survey in 2010, 43% and 23% of new mothers and fathers, respectively, had moved on, with 12% of new mothers and 18% of new fathers switching to full-time jobs outside of STEM. Both were significantly more likely to have changed career than childless respondents.

When those who had shifted to full-time, non-STEM employment were asked why they had quit science, 48% of fathers and 71% of mothers said the move was “family-related”, compared to 4% of those without children. After their first child, 6% of women also switched to part-time, non-STEM careers, compared with 0.5% of men. The study also found that some new parents stayed in science but cut their hours with 11% of mothers and 2% of fathers switching to part-time STEM employment, while 15% of mothers and 3% of fathers were not working by the time of the final survey in 2010.

Removing barriers

The researchers say that STEM fields must do more to address the issues parents have balancing their work with childcare. “This is a problem for science because these new parents who leave are highly trained and have experience in the workforce,” Cech told Physics World. “Their departure means a loss of knowledge and expertise that is disadvantageous for innovation and scientific inquiry.”

This issue is more pronounced for women, adds Cech, because “mothers still shoulder – and are culturally expected to shoulder – the lion’s share of childcare responsibilities”.  Cech adds that culture, institutional policies and organizational practices all need to be looked at to tackle the issue. “Policies like paid caregiver leave that are more inclusive – that include both parents – would help parents share the burden of early caregiving responsibilities,” she says. “Organizations that employ STEM professionals need to carefully consider how their policies and practices around workers with caregiving responsibilities may be squeezing out those professionals. More flexible work practices – and workplace cultures that support rather than stigmatize the use of those policies – would also help.”

Miriam Deutsch, chair of the American Physical Society’s committee on the status of women in physics, told Physics World that beyond policies to remove unnecessary, tangible obstacles, there needs to be a deeper cultural shift to improve the lives of women and mothers in STEM. “The [research] mentions various cultural and social pressures, such as the view that parents are less devoted to their careers than non-parents,” she explains. “How to impart this cultural shift is the million-dollar question. But it is clear that without a significant change in culture and climate, policies alone will not eliminate all the major barriers for women.”

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