Under the Microscope:The phrase "cash-rich, time-poor" is often heard now. It describes a phenomenon previously unknown in Ireland, where the opposite situation - "cash-poor, time-rich" was the norm, writes Prof William Reville
Both alternatives are far from ideal and each springs largely from the economic model in practice. The current scenario is particularly stressful for career women who anxiously watch their biological clocks as they pound the career treadmill. A recent UK survey (summarised in the Sunday Telegraph, April 22nd, 2007) has found that a third of women graduates will never have children. As a career, science is particularly demanding while, at the same time, less financially rewarding than an investment of the same time and talent in some other careers. This undoubtedly is a hurdle to be overcome in attracting women into science and retaining them there.
The study involved more than 5,000 women born in 1970 whose lives were tracked by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education in London. Some 40 per cent of the graduate women were childless at the age of 35. Only 32.7 per cent of a previous panel of graduate women born in 1958 were childless at 35. The researchers forecast that by the time the current group reach the likely end of their child-bearing years at 45, about 30 per cent will still be childless. Of the previous panel of older women studied, only 23.6 per cent were childless at 45. These results help to explain the low birth rate which is leading to an ageing population in western Europe. Some women consciously decide to remain childless, but many take so long to build a career, find the right partner and buy a home that they leave it too late to bear a child. In other words, there is good evidence that economic and social policies have created conditions that are much less family-friendly than in the past.
Mary Harney a while back declared that, economically and philosophically, Ireland is closer to Boston than to Berlin. This is probably good at least in the short term for economic development but it is also a sure-fire formula for a "cash-rich, time-poor" society. What we need is balanced development so that quality of life is maintained as economic prosperity improves. I don't think, on reflection, that the typical progression through an academic science career at present is conducive to a balanced life, particularly for women.
From age 18 to 22 you study for your primary university science degree. From 22 to 26/27 you attend graduate school doing your PhD and living on a stipend of about €1,200 per month. From age 27 to 33 you work in short-contract post-doctoral positions earning €30,000 per annum, rising to about €45,000. This is intense work as you have to publish enough high quality research papers to make you attractive for permanent academic employment at the end of your "post-doc" period. At the age of 34/35 you may, if you are lucky, get a position as junior lecturer in a university at a starting salary of about €45,000 per annum. Such positions are relatively scarce, as are lectureships/ research posts in research institutes and institutes of technology, but they are secure permanent jobs.
If you fail to secure such a position you must either continue in a postdoctoral position or to get a job in industry. This is difficult as you have now become very expensive to hire as a "post-doc" and industry prefers to hire people in their mid-20s. After spending 14 years in specialised training you could find yourself in "no-man's land". If you are a woman, by the time permanent academic employment is won there is little time left to start a family. Many women "miss the boat".
Then there is the scientific career after tenure, described by Roger Bowen, of the American Association of University Professors, in a discussion hosted in 2006 by the Chronicle of Higher Education: "The average full professor, someone who has been teaching for, say, 15 years or longer, is making five times less than the average president at most institutions; works 60-70 hour weeks, uses holidays to do research, and tries desperately to find time to be a good spouse, father, mother, or partner. The life of the mind may seem cushy, but it is not."
The big uncertainty in developing a research career is the period immediately following your PhD, when you take on "post-doc" contract positions. If you fail to win a permanent academic position within five to six years you have a problem since there is little or no other career strand as a full-time researcher. This area is being looked at presently but progress is slow. An Association of Research Contract Staff (ARCS) has recently been formed at UCC (http://www.ucc.ie/en/arcs/), where we employ 700 contract researchers. ARCS will act as a general resource to support contract researchers and, presumably, will lobby for the creation of career research outlets from post-doctoral positions.
Science will always attract a certain quota of people who naturally love the subject. Such people may be prepared to enter a career lottery out of love for science. However, the Government is now ambitious to double the numbers of PhD graduates. This can only be done by widening postgraduate intake beyond those who have a burning zeal for science. When making their decisions, this new group, the interested but not obsessed, will first look very closely at career prospects.
William Reville is associate professor of biochemistry and public awareness of science officer at UCC - understandingscience.ucc.ie