Women in Science. Lessons From the Baby Boom
研究了生育如何影响女性科学家的职业轨迹，发现母亲在30多岁生产力下降，40岁初达到高峰，且仅27%获得终身教职，远低于父亲和其他女性。
This paper investigates how children affect women in science, using biographies in the American Men of Science (MoS 1956), linked with publications. First, we show that mothers have a unique life cycle pattern of productivity: While other scientists peak in their mid‐30s, mothers become less productive at that age and reach peak productivity in their early‐40s. Next, we estimate event studies of marriage, comparing mothers and fathers with other married scientists. Event study estimates show that the productivity of mothers declines until children reach school age, while fathers experience no change. These differences have important implications for tenure and participation: Just 27% of mothers achieve tenure, compared with 48% of fathers and 46% of other women. When women carried the full burden of childcare, the time costs of raising the baby boom led to a great loss of female scientists.