Onto, Up, Off the Academic Faculty Ladder: The Gendered Effects of Family on Career Transitions for a Cohort of Social Science Ph.D.s

With event history analysis, we examine the impact of gender, marital status and spouse type, and parenting at key transition points in the early careers of more than 2,000 social science Ph.D. graduates. This analysis (a) uses data from recent Ph.D. graduates; (b) disentangles the effects of marriage and parenting; and (c) observes the effects of different marriage configurations. Results suggest that the negative impacts of motherhood and marriage on women's careers are diminishing, but that for men fatherhood and marriage are beneficial. Most importantly, marriage to a less-educated spouse is associated with significant career advantages for men; however, women do not realize similar benefits from this type of marriage.