Events

Professor Jun Li
Professor of Technology and Operations
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan

For decades, the United States grappled with a childcare shortage that has left American families struggling to secure quality care, compromising both children’s development and parental career progress. Here I investigate the impact of childcare availability—and the lack thereof—on US scientists’ career advancement and gender equity in science. I construct a longitudinal database of childcare facilities and their capacities spanning the last twenty years. Leveraging the biennial survey of US scientists and engineers sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I uncover that over half of US scientists employed at universities and research institutions work in childcare deserts, that is, areas where the supply of childcare falls significantly short of demand. Despite similar exposure to childcare deserts, the career consequences for male and female scientists differ starkly. Women scientists with young children (under six years old within the first six years post PhD) are 5.2 percentage points less likely to achieve tenure in childcare deserts, while no significant association is observed for men with young children on average. Meanwhile, I observe no association between childcare deserts and tenure outcomes for scientists without children, regardless of gender. While reduced available work time partly explains this disparity, there are likely other factors, such as increased fatigue and frequent work disruptions, that could also contribute. Overall, these findings highlight the critical role of expanding childcare availability to enhance research productivity and to reduce the tenure gender gap in science. Besides presenting these findings, I would also like to discuss with the seminar participants the child care system in Asia.

Jun Li is a Professor of Technology and Operations at Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. She conducts research in empirical operations management and business analytics spanning areas across revenue management and pricing, healthcare management, supply chain risks, and public sector operations. Her current research aims at improving the wellbeing of children, young adults, and their families. She won the 2015 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Practice Award, the 2020 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Award, the 2022 MSOM Young Scholar Prize, Poet&Quant 40 Under 40 MBA Professors, the Management Science Best Publication award and the Responsible Operations Management Best Publication award, etc. She serves as Associate Editors at Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Operations Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Management Science from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Tsinghua University.