Gender Differences in First Jobs for New US PhDs in the Mathematical Sciences

TL;DR

This study analyzes gender, citizenship, and employment trends among new US PhDs in mathematical sciences from 1991 to 2015, revealing persistent gender and citizenship disparities in initial employment sectors and institution rankings.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive long-term analysis of employment patterns and disparities for new PhDs in mathematical sciences, highlighting gender and citizenship differences.

Findings

Women have lower or equal unemployment rates compared to men over 25 years.

Men from top programs are more likely to work at top-ranked departments.

Women more frequently accept jobs at departments with only bachelor's degrees.

Abstract

We take a long term look at initial employment trends for new doctorates with an eye towards gender, citizenship, and gender and citizenship differences by analyzing data from 1991-2015 AMS-ASA-IMS-MAA- SIAM Annual Surveys. The data show that the unemployment rate for women has been equal to or lower than the rate for men during most of the last quarter century. The one exception is that between 2001 and 2015 the unemployment rate for women who are not U.S. citizens was higher than the rate for non-citizen men. The unemployment rates are higher for males who are U.S. citizens than for non-citizen males in the last fifteen years, a puzzling trend. The data show that men from all pure math programs are considerably more likely than women to take jobs at the top-ranking and top-producing math departments. The data show women take jobs at departments in which the highest degree is a bachelor's degree at much higher rates and men take jobs in business and industry at considerably higher rates. We also find that men from the top-ranking or top-producing doctoral programs tend to be more likely to take jobs at academic institutions or research institutes at least on a par with their degreegranting institutions.