Parents in the Pipeline: Retaining Postdoctoral Researchers with Families

Abstract

While the numbers of women in STEM remain abysmally low, the rates of women’s’ academic achievement in other fields have reached or exceeded gender parity. One reason is that research appointments were not designed to be compatible with having a family, and the resulting strain pushes women – and many men – off their career track. This report, based on the first comprehensive nationwide survey of postdocs who have children, and institutional data provided by the National Postdoctoral Association, highlights the full dimensions of this parenthood leak in the STEM pipeline.