What do women with advanced degrees want from life--and what do they get? Summarizing Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin, Scott Jaschik writes at Inside Higher Ed,

The women who graduated from college at the beginning of the 20th century, she said, wanted family or a career — not both. Subsequent generations wanted a job first and then a family, a family first and then a job, a career and then family. Only starting with those who graduated from colleges in the ’80s and ’90s was the goal explicitly to have both a career and a family — with neither given clear preference. “The question returns to having it all,” she said.

And that suggests that comparisons are needed not just of the advancement of women, but of their ability to advance while having a family. For that, Goldin turned to research she is conducting with Lawrence Katz, another Harvard economist, on the “Harvard and Beyond Project,” which tracks what happens to three cohorts of graduates of the university — those who graduated around 1970, 1980 and 1990-15 years after they received their bachelor’s degrees. (Goldin and Katz both acknowledged that Harvard alumni are by no means typical of Americans, but suggested that the advantages Harvard graduates enjoy in education, connections and wealth make them an ideal group to study — with the thinking that if these women can’t pull off the balancing act, it would be more difficult still for many others.)

Jaschik's article includes an interesting table detailing what percentage of women with particular advanced degrees--for example, a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, a JD, an MBA, or a Ph.D.--remain employed 15 years after graduating from Harvard. The table also shows the change in employment patterns if women have no children, one child, or two or more children. Which highly educated women are most likely to stay in the workforce? Doctors, dentists, and veterinarians--regardless of whether or not they have children.

Historiann provides some context from her own observations, and then offers some advice:

Physicians, especially primary care docs, on the other hand are different from most academics, and these differences, plus some advantages in their lines of work, make all the difference:

1. They tend to be more traditional in their vision for their lives, in that most of them want marriage and children. (There are very few really hippie-groovy physicians–whereas the academics I know, myself included, weren’t necessarily set on one particular vision of family or love relationship in our early 20s.)
2. (Maybe what I mean here is that they have better planning and execution skills?)
3. They have lots of job opportunities, especially if they’re in primary care and open to leaving the big cities where they trained. (Some cities and metro areas are choked with primary care docs, but that just means that they may have to work for less money, not that they won’t be able to find work.)
4. They make lots of money compared to academics, and so can pay for full-time nannies and other high-quality, in-home care. The docs I know make between $200,000 and $400,000, which beats the hell out of what I make. As Liz Phair sang in a song way back in the 90s: “you have got to have $hitloads of money.”
5. They are trained to work hard. Medical school, and then a 3- to 6-year residency weeds out the weak like you wouldn’t believe. The docs I know make good money, but they’re incredibly hard workers and they serve their patients well.
6. (Only point 5 applies for people in academic medicine, which from what I’ve heard anecdotally, is just as competitive and cutthroat as academia in general, if not moreso. Academic medicine is all of the hassle, for much, much less of the money–on top of truly brutal student loan debt, compared to most humanities Ph.D.s I know.)

Her advice? Encourage your daughters to fall in love with science by offering them science- and medicine-themed toys and games. Instill in them an appreciation of the humanities, but point out that the careers that allow them to have both a decent salary and family don't tend to be in the academic humanities.

Laura of Geeky Mom provides more analysis of why many women don't stick with--or fail to thrive in--academic careers:

Some fields are full of competition, academe being one of them. Locally, one is often competing for resources, which is sometimes based on one's success in "national" competitions for publication. What if one is just curious, interested in exploring different issues, sharing those explorations with students and, when appropriate, on a national stage via conferences and journals? Or what if one simply wants to read other people's explorations and teach? Academe seems to have become a one size fits all operation. The beginning of the article stressed that different women want different things in terms of balance. When an industry only has one path for success, that can severely limit who chooses to take that path.

As Jaschik points out, the study does focus on elite women--those with bachelor's degrees from Harvard. Some scholars might hold that the study is generalizable because hey, if women from Harvard aren't able to juggle a full-time career and family, then who the hell could? The big picture, however, might be different because not all women have the financial resources to stay home from work to care for children.

Kathy G. points us to a study that counters all the news articles in the past few years that claim educated women are "opting out" of work in large numbers:

The main findings of the study, which is by a sociology graduate student at Princeton named Christine Percheski, is that the notion that increasing numbers of women are opting out of the work force is a myth. Using government data from the Census and the American Community Survey, she shows that the labor force participation of professional women has continued to increase. Moreover, these women are working longer hours, and the employment rates of women with children and women in male-dominated professions continue to climb. In addition, the fertility rates of professional women have remained steady, and college-educated women have the highest marriage rates of all educational groups.

Definitely click through to Kathy's summary and analysis of Percheski's study. Fascinating and complex stuff.

As a Ph.D. myself, I will say that since having a child (my son is now 3), it has been very difficult to summon the intellectual, physical, and emotional energy to work at the top of my game. I work full-time, but I'm on the academic sidelines, which means I don't have the "publish or perish" pressure of my tenure-track colleague. Still, if I had my druthers, I'd be working part-time so that I could spend more time with my son in his pre-school years.

What are your observations about women with advanced degrees? Do you get the sense that the vets, doctors, and dentists you run into are satisfied with their work-life balance?

Leslie Madsen-Brooks develops learning experiences for K-12, university, and museum clients. She blogs at The Clutter Museum, Museum Blogging, and The Multicultural Toybox.