Parenthood and PhD completion: A life course analysis of gender inequalities in doctoral training

Gender disparities continue to shape academic careers, despite the growing participation of women in science. Doctoral education represents a pivotal stage in this process, as it structures entry into academic and research careers and often overlaps with family formation. Drawing on gender and life-course perspectives, this article examines whether the timing of parenthood during doctoral training is associated with gender differences in PhD completion time. We focus on the presence of young children during the doctoral trajectory as a time-varying event that may disrupt academic progression in gendered ways. Using longitudinal data covering 24 years of PhD enrolment cohorts in Uruguay, the study combines academic records and credentials from researchers' CVs with survey information on the timing of childbirth. We apply event-history analysis and log-logistic duration models to assess how the presence of young children during doctoral training is associated with time to completion, and whether these associations persist across cohorts, disciplinary fields, and supportive academic and institutional conditions. Results reveal consistent gender patterns. Childless men complete their PhDs fastest, while childless women and fathers show similar completion times. Mothers of young children experience the longest doctoral trajectories. Although overall completion times vary by discipline, motherhood penalties are observed across fields, including female-dominated areas. These disadvantages persist across cohorts and even among individuals benefiting from supportive academic and institutional conditions, including doctoral scholarships, stronger predoctoral publication portfolios, and international doctoral training. The findings suggest that parenthood constitutes an important mechanism through which gender inequalities are reproduced during doctoral training. While supportive academic and institutional conditions facilitate doctoral progression, they do not eliminate the disadvantages associated with motherhood. These results underscore the importance of incorporating care considerations into policies aimed at promoting more equitable doctoral trajectories.