Experience Stern | Faculty & Research

Overview: In “Women in Science. Lessons From the Baby Boom,” NYU Stern Professor Petra Moser and co-author Scott Kim investigated how having children impacted the careers of female scientists during the mid-20th century. Using a large dataset of nearly 50,000 biographies from the American Men of Science linked to publication records, the researchers analyzed how marriage and children affected the productivity and career advancement (like tenure) of women compared to men and to women without children. The study focused on the baby boom era (1946-1964), a period when women handled nearly all childcare responsibilities.

Why study this now: Women remain significantly underrepresented in the top ranks of science, such as tenured full professors. While many structural barriers are known, the specific, long-term impact of children on academic productivity is not well understood.

By examining the baby boom, researchers can better understand the long-term consequences of these “child penalties.” This is especially relevant today as researchers try to measure the career impact of recent events, like the COVID-19 pandemic, which also placed a disproportionate childcare burden on female scientists.

What the authors found: The authors identified several impacts of motherhood on scientific careers, including: 

• Clear “child penalty”: While most scientists hit peak productivity in their mid-30s, mothers experience a productivity dip at that age. Their output declines for roughly seven years (while children are young) and then recovers, reaching its actual peak in their early-40s. Fathers’ productivity did not change after marriage.
• Massive tenure gap: Only 27% of mothers in academia achieved tenure, compared to 48% of fathers and 46% of women without children. Mothers who didn’t get tenure early (within six years) were unlikely to ever get it.
• Worse outcomes in couples: When both partners were scientists, mothers’ productivity fell even further (and never recovered), while fathers’ productivity increased.

What does this change: This research provides significant historical evidence that the “child penalty” was a primary driver of women’s underrepresentation in science. The findings suggest that the baby boom created a massive historical setback, resulting in a significant loss of female scientists (at least 22%, or 600 scientists, from the authors’ estimate). This loss of talent likely changed the direction of scientific innovation, leading to less research on topics that benefit women, such as women’s health. 

Key insight: “Had the number of female scientists grown at the same rate as that of men, an additional 604 female scientists would have entered American science, nearly 30% more,” said Professor Moser. “This implies an enormous loss in exposure to female role models, which has been shown to encourage participation in science. As a result, the shadow of the baby boom may affect science to this day.”

This research was published in Econometrica.