Graduate Student Working Hours and Satisfaction with Teaching / Research Outcomes

Abstract

　 This paper sought to clarify the gender differences in the factors that contributed to extended graduate student working hours and their satisfaction with teaching/research outcomes. Data were extracted and analyzed from the Nature PhD Career Survey 2019 on doctoral students around the world from all scientific fields, from which the following were found. The long working hour culture tended to increase the research time of both genders, but younger males tended to work longer and younger women and women with children under 12 tended to work less. The long working hour culture was found to have a negative effect on the female satisfaction with their education and research outcomes but a positive effect on male satisfaction with their research outcomes. These findings suggested that the long working hour culture in scientific fields is detrimental to female graduate students.