Relatively many young women with a doctorate

At the end of 2005 72 thousand people in the Netherlands had a PhD. This is less than one in a thousand people. Although there are many more men with a doctorate, the share of young women is increasing rapidly. Nearly nine out of ten people with a PhD had a job, of whom one fifth in research.

Persons with a PhD by age and sex, 2005

Relatively many women among young doctors

Overall, women account for 30 percent of the 72 thousand people with a doctorate. In the group aged younger than 35 years, however, nearly half are women, while in the group aged 55-70 years this is only 20 percent. The largest group of people with a doctorate are aged between 35 and 45 years. Fifty-five percent of people who received their doctorate in the last twelve months were older than 30. It took half of the men in this group more than five and a half years to complete their PhD research, while half of the women had completed it in four and a half years.

Persons with a PhD by discipline, 2005

Health care most popular discipline

One in three PhDs awarded are for research in a health care discipline. Nearly 15 percent of doctorates are awarded in science: physics chemistry, or geology, for example.

Almost just as many women as men in work in research

Nearly nine out of ten people with a PhD had a job, of whom 20 percent (13 thousand) in research. Some 30 percent of these researchers were women, the same percentage as for all PhDs. More women with a PhD work full-time than other women. Just over 40 percent of all working women in the Netherlands work for 30 hours a week or more. For women with a doctorate this was more than 70 percent. For men this difference is much smaller.

Maaike Hersevoort, Robert de Vries en Maartje Rienstra