Project description
In recent decades, women's later lives have undergone rapid changes, shifting toward increased and longer labour market activity. This shift in employment levels has outpaced changes in family, social and welfare domains, which often fail to align with the new reality and continue to pose challenges to the healthy retirement of the new generation of older women. This project examines the shifting retirement trajectories for older women and the consequences of the growing pressure to work longer on physical and mental well-being. The PhD candidate will particularly focus on the constraints faced by older women, such as rigid family roles, caregiving responsibilities, disadvantaged labour market position, discrimination at work, financial insecurity, or critical private life challenges (e.g., widowhood). The candidate will also explore the role of organisational policies and practices in making longer work more accessible, inclusive and beneficial for various groups of women. 

The study will look at the problem from an interdisciplinary perspective by integrating sociological, demographic/epidemiological, and organizational approaches. It will also use comparative and longitudinal designs, high-quality and reliable data sources, and advanced statistical modelling. Application of complex longitudinal and multilevel analysis (e.g., latent trajectory mixture models, longitudinal causal methods) is crucial for this project. For example, the PhD candidate will work with cross-national comparative data, such as Comparative Panel File (www.cpfdata.com) or SHARE Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to provide a comprehensive perspective of the changing older women’s careers and health-related outcomes. The project will also involve application of the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel, and supplementary data collection (e.g., within the LISS panel module) with our own questionnaires.

Job description 
The PhD project is part of a collaboration between the Department of Human Resource Studies, the Department of Sociology, and the Department of Methodology, funded by The Herbert Simon Research Institute (HSRI) at Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences within the cross-cutting theme Healthy Lifespan. The PhD student will be affiliated with two departments and is expected to switch offices after the first two years, most likely beginning in the Department of Human Resource Studies and later joining either the Department of Sociology or the Department of Methodology. This will strengthen the interdisciplinary character of the project and allow the PhD a better integration with a broader and more diverse network.

The project is supervised by Dr. Konrad Turek (Department of Human Resource Studies), Dr. Mine Kühn (Department of Sociology), and Prof. Jeroen Vermunt (Department of Methodology). This collaboration originated within the interdisciplinary Social Inequality and Diversity team of HSRI. 

The position and the environment in which the candidate will be embedded provide an optimal starting point for an academic career, especially in the direction of quantitatively oriented interdisciplinary social sciences in relation to topics such as work & retirement, changing labour markets, gender inequalities, organization studies, and healthy ageing. The supervising team, academic environment, and additional external training opportunities will facilitate the development of research and statistical skills. New data collection will be a great opportunity to learn questionnaire design. The candidate will follow a customized track of graduate courses, which will further develop the candidate’s research skills, background knowledge, and network. The candidate will also have an opportunity to participate in the ongoing development of the open-science harmonization initiative Comparative Panel File together with Dr. Konrad Turek, which will be used for the research. The position also involves contributions to teaching, giving the candidate the opportunity to build a teaching portfolio during the PhD project.

The major responsibilities are: 

•  The research work includes literature reviews and desk research, theoretical analysis, working with large datasets, independently conducting complex longitudinal data-analyses (e.g., latent growth curve modelling)
•  Writing international scientific publications and a PhD dissertation
•  Planning and executing additional data collection
•  Presenting at national and international scientific conferences and disseminating findings to a non-scientific audience 
•  Aligning with and contributing to the Open Science as much as possible
•  Active participation in the team involved in this project and in the Departments (e.g., attending departmental meetings) and in the interdisciplinary Socia Inequality and Diversity team at HSRI
• Teaching and supervision (e.g., supervision of bachelor theses) of max 0.2 FTE 

Job requirements and qualifications of the candidate
We are looking for a highly motivated, inquisitive, enthusiastic, proactive, and result-driven PhD researcher. Applicants must have a relevant MSc degree (preferably a research master), for example, in sociology, demography, social epidemiology, health sciences, human resource management, social or organizational psychology, etc. 

• Interest in conducting high-quality research on work, retirement, health, and gender inequalities 
• Excellent research skills and data analytical abilities, including in-depth knowledge of statistical programs (e.g., Stata, R, or Mplus) 
• Interested in learning and applying less standard and more advanced statistical methods, programming, and working with large, cross-national and longitudinal datasets 
• Excellent project management and organization skills 
• Excellent communication and cooperation skills and the willingness to work in a team 
• Proficiency in English (Dutch is a plus but not necessary)
• Interest in providing small-scale education, such as working groups and bachelor thesis supervision 
• Interest in open science 

Terms of employment 
Your valuable contribution will be rewarded with attractive benefits and sufficient attention to work-life balance. This is a vacancy for a temporary position in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 8 of the CLA for Dutch Universities. You will be given a temporary employment contract for the duration of 12 months. After this period, in case of proven suitability and continuation in the same position, you will receive a subsequent employment contract that can be extended to a maximum duration of 36 months. 

A salary ranging from €2.770 in the first year to a maximum of €3.539 in the fourth year gross per month for full time employment, based on UFO profile PhD researcher and salary scale PROM of the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.  

In addition to your monthly salary, you will receive 41 vacation days (for a 40-hour work week), a holiday allowance (8%), and a year-end bonus (8.3%). We reimburse the full cost of sustainable commuting: walking, cycling, or public transportation. We have a moving expenses scheme that makes it attractive to live close to the university. You will be enrolled in the ABP pension fund through us. Our Options Model allows you to choose from a variety of facilities at a tax advantage. You can work in a hybrid manner: on campus and, for a reimbursement, from home. Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a tax-free allowance of 30% of their taxable salary if they meet the relevant conditions. The university applies for this allowance on their behalf.