According to a new study by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Disability and Health Research, U.S. science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) PhD recipients who become disabled by age 25 earn $14,360 less per year in academia than their non-disabled peers. They are also underrepresented in senior faculty and tenured positions, such as deans and provosts.
The findings are published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
“We’re trying to identify and remove barriers to inclusion,” says Bonilyn Swenar, PhD, MPH, Endowed Professor of Disability Health and Justice and founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Disability Health Research. “To combat disparities, we need structural change.”
Previous studies have documented wage gaps and unequal representation in STEM fields among women and minorities in the U.S. Research has also found that scientists and engineers with disabilities (regardless of the age at which their disability began) are more likely to be unemployed than the U.S. workforce as a whole. However, there is a lack of data on disparities for STEM PhD recipients with disabilities.
Dr. Swenor and colleagues looked for evidence of differences in pay and representation for STEM PhD recipients with disabilities before age 25 and for STEM PhD recipients with disabilities after age 25, compared to PhD recipients without disabilities. The authors used national data on approximately 1.15 million U.S. research PhD recipients who earned their degrees between 1973 and 2017.
Of the sample, 704,013 people are currently working in STEM fields (including 36,807 who reported experiencing a disability later in life and 20,544 who reported experiencing a disability in childhood).Within this subset, the researchers matched individuals based on socioeconomic background, occupation, and degree-related characteristics.
Across all employment sectors, STEM doctoral graduates with disabilities earn $10,580 less per year than their non-disabled peers, and in academia they earn $14,360 less. The authors also found that people with disabilities are underrepresented in senior faculty and tenured positions, such as deans and provosts. The authors call for structural reforms to close these disparities.
“The Disability Health Research Centre aims to shift the paradigm of ‘living with disability’ to ‘thriving with disability’ and is using a data-driven approach to drive change across many fields, including STEM,” said Dr Swenor.
Currently, more than 27% of American adults have a disability, yet people with disabilities still face many barriers to health, equity, and inclusion.
Study authors include Bonnielin Swenor, Franz Castro (JHSON), Elizabeth Stuart (JHSPH), Jennifer Deal (JHSPH; JHSOM), and Varshini Varadaraj (JHSON).
Further information: Franz Castro et al., “STEM PhDs with childhood disabilities have lower salaries and fewer opportunities for higher academic jobs,” Nature Human Behaviour (2023) DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01745-z
Courtesy of Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
Source: Doctoral graduates with disabilities are underpaid and underrepresented in U.S. academia: Study (November 27, 2023) Retrieved July 13, 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2023-11-phd-disabilities-underpaid-underrepresented-academia.html
This document is subject to copyright. It may not be reproduced without written permission, except for fair dealing for the purposes of personal study or research. The content is provided for informational purposes only.