Starting a PhD and becoming a parent: Gendered life-course trajectories in academic careers

The intersection of doctoral training and parenthood poses unique challenges for early-career researchers, with lasting consequences for gender equality in academic careers. Drawing on a global survey of 8,097 academic parents, we reconstruct life-course trajectories of academic parents to investigate gender differences in the timing and sequencing of PhD completion and parenthood, and their implications for long-term career development. We identify five distinct trajectories. Women were more likely to complete the PhD before age 30 and delay parenthood after 35, whereas men tended to become parents during doctoral studies and often had three or more children by age 40. Early parenthood was associated with the largest gender disparities in scientific citations, favoring men, while these disparities diminished among those who became parents after age 35. Across all trajectories, men were consistently more likely to secure and remain in academic positions. These findings underscore the structural challenges faced by early-career mothers and highlight the importance of institutional policies, such as parental leave, childcare provision, and flexible doctoral and tenure timelines, to better support the reconciliation of parenting and academic careers.