Parenthood and Gender in Russian Academia

Abstract

Based on data from a survey conducted in November 2021 involving 2,395 economists working in the academic field, the impact of parenthood on both mothers and fathers on elements of academic careers, such as defending a doctoral thesis and publishing productivity, is being analyzed. It has been observed that men successfully balance the arrival of their first child with the defense of their doctoral thesis, while for most women, these events occur sequentially with a time gap. Furthermore, the strategies for combining parenthood with building a professional career among young respondents differ from those of their older colleagues. The older the woman in our sample, the more likely she is to prioritize the "child first, then defense" strategy. Over time, priorities have shifted, and now women are more inclined to postpone childbirth. Using data from the elibrary.ru library, indicators of respondents' publication productivity were obtained, indicating that, on average, men publish more works indexed in RINC and the RINC core. A similar publication gap has been identified in other countries, with researchers suggesting unequal burdens that women and men bear during parenthood as a possible explanation for this gap. The results of the study do not provide grounds to consider the presence or absence of children as a significant factor explaining this gap. The author considers self-selection among respondents due to barriers within the academic environment and differences in career goals as possible reasons for the publication gap. Both women with and without children are relatively more oriented towards a teaching career, and the presence of a child may strengthen this tendency.

Keywords

• parenthood
• work-life balance
• academic career
• doctoral dissertation
• publication productivity