Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates

American Enterprise Institute ^ | Matthew Woessner, Ph.D., April Kelly-Woessner, Ph.D.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

A study by two conservative researchers attempting to determine why conservatives are underrepresented on college and university faculties. The conclusion is while some portion of this imbalance can be traced to "bias" and "discrimination", a large part results from a decision by students with conservative values not to pursue a career with limited economic potential that also requires sacrifice of family commitments to achieve academic advancement.

"Since conservatives place an especially high priority on financial security and raising a family, the academy needs to make efforts to adopt more family-friendly policies...

"As graduate school is not financially lucrative and pre-tenure faculty careers often leave little time for family. Given these demands, the career of an academic is not especially appealing to individuals who place a priority on “raising a family.”

"Universities should adopt a more family-friendly approach to recruiting both prospective doctoral students and young faculty. For prospective graduate students, this might include subsidized housing for married couples, health insurance for spouses and young children, and an open commitment to work with young parents whose academic progress will inevitably be constrained by family considerations. For young faculty, the option of suspending the tenure clock to care for a newborn child would provide family-oriented conservatives the confidence that raising children will not jeopardize their academic career... While these types of family-friendly policies are often designed to attract more women to academia, the data seems to suggest that they would also serve to make doctoral programs more attractive to conservative, family oriented students. In fact, these programs would likely have the greatest effect on recruiting one of academia’s least represented groups — conservative women.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

I found this study interesting because it jibs well with my own observations of the “cultural differences” between conservatives and liberals, for example IMO a young conservative considering an academic career outside the sciences and engineering will usually find that their friends and family are less supportive of the choice of a lower paying (relative to the other careers open to the same individual) job that makes very heavy demands on their time than a young liberal contemplating the same decision.

And while I find it depressing that the authors end up suggesting “subsides” of conservative students able to earn more in another profession, I suspect that they are correct that it’s the only way to attract substantially larger numbers of young family-oriented conservatives to such career paths.

[tear gas]

What about Dr. Sean Hannity?

[ClearCase_guy]

I see this as two sides of the same coin. I seriously considered a career in teaching. It's true the pay isn't great, but I thought it was adequate -- and I thought (since family is important to me) that the amount of time off would be a real plus. I was all set to go. That is, until my advisor took me aside and said that my values (conservative) would torpedo my career and that I would spend time and money preparing for a career that would never amount to anything.

I ended up pursing other career options. Because of worries over time and family commitments? Well, you could say that. But really I was worried about the bias.

[sinanju]

As they say: Ph.D = Piledhigher.Deeper

[RKB-AFG]

Very interesting. These are the type of engaging stories I like to read on FR. The intellectual conservative movement in the academy is very important to the health of the nation. Conservatives should not allow themselves to be portrayed as hicks.

If there were more conservative professors, Obama would not be sweeping the “college vote.”

[kaehurowing]

Gee, and all this time I thought it was because we’re stupid.

[Chode]

from what i've seen, unless you are an MD... for the most part, a dr degree is pretty much useless. and so are the people that have them.

[Tanniker Smith]

About the only thing that got me through my first couple of years in my teaching career was the extra time for my kids, instead of just taking a week off from the other job. My wife and I used to take separate vacations so we'd have more time off.

Now that the kids are older, I put in more time tutoring after school or doing summer school.

[DeweyCA]

Your concerns about bias were well-founded. One of my best friends is about to get tenured (he hopes), but he regularly talks about the crazy Libs in his department and he knows he has to be quiet about his conservative Christian views at the U of MN.

[ansel12]

The family unfriendly, low paying (until recently), military always managed to find plenty of conservatives to devote their lives to it.

[wideawake]

Interesting. I specifically decided not to pursue doctoral studies because in academia, even if you are a good little leftist, one's career is endless political struggle and maneuver in exchange for not much money (at least in the humanities).

The financial world involves far less political nonsense than academia does, and pays much better.

[radiohead]

There has been a move at some schools to stop the tenure clock for both women and men who have new children. This is because today's woman expects the man to be of some help and for the first time, men are 'having' to take time off, or reduce the amount of time they can spend on tenure-track activities, because of family requirements. No longer do women, often tenure-track or professionals themselves, expect to carry the load themselves and it has started to affect men's working lives. Sad to say, if it didn't affect men, it wouldn't be considered an issue. /feminist rant

I went back for the PhD after a career as a lawyer. I'm fortunate to be in a field where you can do that - many fields are prejudiced against older students or hiring older faculty. Typical 'fairminded' libs who have no problem discriminating against the mature student/faculty member.

I think that for conservatives want to make enough money to take care of their families and contribute to academe, there are 3 paths: 1) keep your day job and be an adjunct; 2) get the PhD later in life; and/or 3)go into academic fields that pay a decent salary. You want to be an English prof and live on 35K, have fun. I examined my interests, looked to see where there was a market, and took myself in that direction.

[TheRobb7]

I have a Masters Degree in Religious Education.

I make eyeglasses instead.

Why? I make more money in optics.

More $ = support family.

I do agree that we need more conservatives in academia.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

What about Dr. Sean Hannity?

Sean Hannity is a media personality, not an working academic, he dropped out of New York University and received an honorary doctorate from Liberty University.

Which is to say, he went where the money and status are to be found.

In this sense he's an excellent example of the sort of choices the author of the paper are talking about, and it's pretty hard for me to imagine him doing academic research, submitting it to peer review, presenting and defending his concussion at academic conferences, and so on.

[vetvetdoug]

I resent that remark. My doctorate of veterinary medicine allows me to earn the high salary of $56k a year with little or no chance of a higher salary unless I choose to work more than the 75 hours a week I already do or move to an area where the average income is greater than the $23K average per capita here. I used my D.V.M. to teach at a JUCO a couple of semesters ago and earn some extra cash and also allows me to add insight and intelligence to discussions on FR.

[Hawthorn]

The headline is misleading:

PLENTY of conservatives have Ph.D.'s -- esp. in the hard sciences, engineering, computer science, finance, economics, etc. But probably 50% or more of these "doctors" work for businesses or in government agencies.

So the article isn't really talking about Ph.D.'s per se:

It's talking instead about university faculty members -- and a Ph.D. isn't even a requirement for all such jobs.

Therefore thanks to this article, now at last we know that university faculties aren't sufficiently rewarded for their labors and need subsidies. A striking new insight!

(Gee whiz!)

[M. Dodge Thomas]

The family unfriendly, low paying (until recently), military always managed to find plenty of conservatives to devote their lives to it.

Well... for one thing, you don't spend your first 8-10 years in the military paying your own room and board.

Or find yourself 60-100K in debt to pay for your training upon involuntary separation.

[krb]

pingus

[Chode]

please don't... a Vet is still a DR. and CAN'T be one without the degree. i was talking about doctorates in English, Lit. etc. where the degree isn't required for the most part and even when they have one it doesn't mean that much more in salary.

plus the ego of these people is unreal, demanding they be called DOCTOR BlahBlah simple because of a piece of paper.

[longtermmemmory]

Interesting, I find much of that in the business world.