The Early Career Pathways of Female STEM Doctorates: Do Gendered, Minoritized, and Intersectional Identities Within Discipline-Specific Structural Locations Matter

The disproportionately low number of women in elite science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academic positions raises questions about the extent to which stereotypes against women exist in academic science, especially against women who hold the intersectional identities of racial/ethnic minority woman, married woman, or mother. This study used binary logistic regression analyses and the lens of intersectionality to examine whether historically gendered and minoritized identities---including female, racial/ethnic minority, married, and parent of a young child, and the intersectional identities of being a woman who is a racial/ethnic minority, married, or mother of a young child---increased or decreased the odds of early career pathways into academic science for women with a STEM-related Ph.D. Specifically, this study examined data from the 2008-2010 Survey of Earned Doctorates to determine whether holding any of these identities increased the odds of (1) not having a secured position at the time of graduation; (2) among those with a secured position, securing a nonacademic position; and (3) among those with an academic position, securing a position at a nonresearch versus research institution relative to others who held other identities and intersectional identities.;Married women and mothers of a young child had an increased odds of not having a secured position relative to others. In most disciplines, higher percentages of women overall, married women, and mothers of a young child secured academic versus nonacademic positions than their male peers, but few identities and intersectional identities were statistically significant predictors of whether STEM Ph.D. recipients secured an academic or nonacademic position, with the exception of gender and female parent of a young child. Overall, most STEM Ph.D. recipients with academic positions secured positions at research versus nonresearch institutions, but lower percentages of women than men had positions at research institutions, and lower percentages of racial/ethnic minority women, married women, and mothers of a young child than women overall had positions at research institutions. Women, married graduates, and graduates with young children had an increased odds of securing an academic position at a nonresearch institution relative to others.