SBP: The Price of Parenting in STEM: Explaining Career Paths and Pay Consequences of Parenthood among Science and Engineering Professionals

该提案是根据EHR核心研究（ECR）项目公告NSF 15-509提交的。作为ECR的一部分，该项目由科学与工程中的性别研究（GSE）项目资助。GSE旨在通过教育和实施研究，了解和解决科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育和劳动力参与方面的性别差异，这将导致更大、更多样化的国内STEM劳动力。在过去的二十年中，社会科学研究发现，女孩和妇女在STEM教育中遇到障碍，然后在进入和发展STEM职业方面面临更多障碍。然而，父母身份对STEM专业人员职业生涯的影响还没有得到很好的研究。这项研究将探讨在STEM就业中，养育子女——尤其是做母亲——是否会在保留、晋升和工资方面受到惩罚。从社会学理论的角度来看，社会结构的生命历程是通过性别机构进行的，该研究将研究父母身份如何影响STEM领域男女的职业轨迹、留任率和工资。提出的实证研究项目将使用具有代表性的纵向数据来分析STEM专业人员的这些父母影响。研究人员还将调查这些父母的影响如何因种族/民族、教育水平、部门和STEM领域而异。这些研究结果将为所有职业阶段的性别保留差异提供理论依据，并为制定干预措施提供努力，以提高女性在STEM领域的长期坚持和成功。该项目将使用来自国家科学与工程中心（NCSES）科学与工程统计数据系统（SESTAT）的具有全国代表性的、纵向的、限制使用的STEM专业人员数据，来研究父母身份对职业道路和薪酬的影响。样本（N=17,599）包括2003年和2010年全职就业的STEM专业人员。通过一系列双变量和多变量统计分析，研究人员将解决以下研究问题：谁在成为父母后离开全职STEM工作？他们去了哪里？这些父母的影响如何随性别、种族/民族、教育水平、部门和STEM领域而变化？与其他原因相比，如果受访者出于家庭原因而做出改变，那么改变职业的收入损失成本是否更高？在全职从事STEM职业的工人中，性别、父母身份、教育水平和种族/民族如何影响工资？由于绝大多数工人在职业生涯的某个阶段成为父母，因此了解父母身份对STEM从业者职业生涯的性别影响对于理解这些领域中有才华的女性和男性的保留至关重要。研究人员还将寻找种族/民族、教育水平、部门和STEM领域的系统性差异。

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. As part of ECR, this project is funded by the Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program. GSE seeks to understand and address gender-based differences in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce participation through education and implementation research that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic STEM workforce. Over the past two decades, social science research has found that girls and women encounter barriers in STEM education and then face additional obstacles entering and advancing in STEM careers. Yet, the effects of motherhood and fatherhood on the careers of STEM professionals are not well studied. This research will explore whether parenting--especially motherhood--incurs penalties in STEM employment in terms of retention, advancement, and salary. Using a sociological theoretical perspective that socially structured life courses move through gendered institutions, the study will examine how parenthood shapes career trajectories, retention, and salaries for women and men in STEM fields. The proposed empirical research project will use representative, longitudinal data to analyze these parenthood effects among STEM professionals. The researchers will also investigate how these parenthood effects differ by race/ethnicity, education level, sector, and STEM field. The findings will inform theory about gender differences in retention across all career stages and efforts to develop interventions that improve women's long-term persistence and success in STEM.This project will use nationally representative, longitudinal, restricted-use data of STEM professionals from the Nation Center for Science and Engineering's (NCSES) Science and Engineering Statistical Data System (SESTAT) to examine the effects of parenthood on career paths and pay. The sample (N=17,599) includes STEM professionals employed full-time in 2003 and followed through 2010. Through a series of bi- and multivariate statistical analyses, the researchers will address the following research questions: Who leaves full-time STEM employment after becoming a parent? Where do they go? How do these parenthood effects vary by gender, race/ethnicity, education level, sector, and STEM field? Is the cost in lost income of making a career change higher if respondents made the change for family reasons compared to other reasons? Among workers who remain in full-time STEM careers, how do gender, parenthood, education level, and race/ethnicity affect salary? Since a large majority of workers become parents at some point during their careers, understanding the gendered effects of parenthood on the careers of STEM practitioners is central to understanding the retention of talented women and men in these fields. The researchers will also look for systematic variation by race/ethnicity, education level, sector and STEM field.