Sociology

What do doctorate holders do after their PhD?

Doctorate holders career path is a central issue for our societies and economies that are centered on knowledge. The irrigation of doctorate holders in the whole socio-economic fabric is strategic for our countries and for the institutions in charge of the doctoral training.

I mainly realised and/or coordinated three quantitative studies (longitudinal and transversal in 2015, 2016 and 2017) on doctorate holders graduated in the Paris area career path, one to five years after graduating. These studies are centered on their careers, their professional project, their satisfaction and their professional evolution.

Gender inequality in research careers

During the last decades, the share of women in higher education and in highly qualified occupations strongly raised; however, this evolution did not completely transpose to the research sector [1] [2]. Women's career are characterized by three key moments: their choice of study, the transition time between their graduation and their permanent position, and the evolution of their career. If the first and last moments are largely studied (horizontal segregation, glass ceiling) and actions are conducted to fight inequality at these times, the question of the early stages of their career is still under studied. I am coordinating a study on this crucial period and I realise the quantitative part of it.