Recently I've been contemplating the consequences of dreaming to be a doctorate degree holder. I have grown in a society where the more degrees one holds, the more respect they get. Ironically this the same society that negates and undervalues all such achievements by women. So it really is a lose lose for women. But in most cases, in order to have a semblance of respectable existence, women in the southasian culture simply choose one side of the lose-lose and move on. So, very early on I had decided to go for higher studies and as a result didnot much think about the financial consequences of that choice. Now that I am 3 years into my PhD, this having done a masters first and having gained a year of work experience, I realize that this might not have been the best course of financial decision for my life. As it turns out, a grad students stipend is much less than even someone working at Walmart, McDonald's and pretty much anywhere else. The minimum wage for ontario as of 2022 is 15 dollars per hour. Which for someone with a full time job is approximately (2080×15)=31,200 dollars per year this accounts for 40 hour per week work hours dor 52 weeks. Considering that the average living cost for a single person is minimum 2000 dollars in any place in canada and double that for a family of 3, single income households can only afford to be single. Butthat is not the point I am trying to make here.
An average PhD student at Concordia University earns a stipend of 17,500 dollars per year, from which they must pay tuition and university costs. They are expected to be working 12+hours a day on research, which leaves no room for any other work. Even so, most do take up couple of hours of shift outside for the sake of survival. Which in turn causes their mental health to suffer, but we are not going to focus there either, as that is a whole other can of worms. So supposing an individual with such roles have 12 hours minimum research hours + 6 hours extra work per week (earning 600 extra dollars per month) + 2 hours chores+ 1 hours commute = leaves barely any time for sleep. So, it comes down to a choice between food or sleep.
What I am trying to say is how is anyone supposed to survive with that little money and produce good work and if this is the reward for joining the scientific community, why won't someone just work at a chain such as Walmart? They pay better, have more humaine work hours, have benefits, even parental leave (None of which we postgraduate students get btw, I literally started working the day after giving birth). We really need to treat the brains of our community better.
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