Employment Trends Among Engineering Doctorates by Gender and Family Status

• In Event: 31.038 - Gendering the Academy

Abstract

Increasing the proportion of women among engineering faculty has important consequences for the persistence probabilities of women undergraduate and graduate students. The relatively smaller proportion of women doctorates and challenges associated with work-life integration in academia are obstacles to diversifying the composition of engineering faculty. A life course perspective analysis of longitudinal data from the Survey of Doctorates (2001-2010), this study finds that women engineering doctorates are more likely than their male counterparts to work in the academic sector; however, women engineers with young children are less likely to be employed. Since 28% of engineering doctorates change employment sectors, higher education administrators can potentially increase diversity by shaping policies and programs to encourage multiple alternative career pathways to the professoriate.

Author

• Joyce Main, Purdue University