"Throughout Europe, women remain underrepresented at the top of the scientific career ladder. While existing research on vertical segregation in science has defined the problem and analysed its causes, explorations of how national context factors, including social policies, contribute to gender-fair early career progression remain scarce. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, we show how different combinations of science, gender equality, and social policies interact to constitute five distinct national pathways for gender-fair early career progression. Our results across 31 European countries indicate that combining early childhood education & care policies with a reduction of precarious working conditions for women leads to fairer early careers. Similarly, our results indicate that comprehensive gender equality policies in academia need to be combined with a reduction of precarious working conditions for women to be effective. We therefore highlight the importance of combining different national policy areas to advance towards a more gender equal European Research Area."

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