Back to the Bench

I have been surrounded by science from the day I was born. I grew up with a father who would answer my simplest childhood questions with elaborate scientifically-accurate descriptions, and though most of his efforts were sadly wasted on my younger self, I learned that there was a fascinating world out there just waiting to be explored. When I was a little older, I would spend hours reading my brother’s high school biology text book, captivated by descriptions of animal development. One of my happiest days was when that book became mine, and I no longer had to sneak around to read it. Biology has always been my main interest, and I pursued this through graduate school and to the postdoctoral level. Less than two years into my postdoc, however, I found myself with two adorable babies in my arms and a fellowship that would not cover the cost of childcare. For the first time in my life, I turned away from science as my new loves took precedence.

Surprisingly, I found out that it is quite common for women in the sciences to step away from their hard-earned careers to focus on their families. Also common is women taking less research-intensive (and therefore less time-consuming) jobs to improve their work-life balance. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, an average of 53% of undergraduate students worldwide are female. However, only 44% of doctoral students and 29% of career researchers are women.  Should a woman be able to decide that she would prefer to be home with her kids? Absolutely. Should such a decision be forced upon a woman because of lack of support from her workplace? Absolutely not. If a profession that relies so heavily on ingenuity to make progress is losing a significant percentage of its workforce, can you imagine how many questions relevant to our health, the treatment of diseases and the advancement of science are going unanswered?

Fortunately, many institutions are catching up to the times and providing, or at least attempting to provide, support for scientists who just happen to be parents. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the Athena SWAN charter sets guidelines for institutions trying to close the gender gap in the sciences, among other fields. This charter makes several practical suggestions to improve work-life balance, such as limiting work activities to business hours so that parents can participate in all official events.  Recently, some government funding in the UK is being tied to institutions following the guidelines set by the Athena SWAN charter, and this has been a big incentive for organizations to speed up their progress in dealing with matters of gender equality.

The American Association of University Women (www.aauw.org) has been committed to supporting women in academia for over a century, and has over the years expanded its focus to include women and girls at all stages of scientific discovery. The AAUW provides funding for science education and research, does advocacy and public policy work, and even conducts salary negotiation workshops so that women are ready to demand fair wages when they get a job offer. UNESCO has also set up several initiatives to support women in science, including teaming up with the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation to recognize women excelling in their fields and to provide awards to fund their research.

Some institutions and foundations have from time to time asked focus groups to help identify areas of support for women. One particularly interesting suggestion is that institutions should allow researchers who become parents to use funds from grants to pay for childcare or to hire extra help in the laboratory if needed. Several institutions are also adopting policies that allow both women and men to take a total of one (unpaid) year off to take care of family commitments. The landscape for women in science is gradually changing. 

My stay-at-home-mom years were short-lived, though, and now with three little girls I found my way back to the bench. I have found that with children waiting at home, I can’t work late nights or weekends, and my vacation schedule is controlled by whether or not my children’s daycare center is open. I may not be able to work the long hours that I used to, but now I make every second count. I find that I am better at planning my experiments and more efficient at carrying them out, though sometimes this means skipping lunch on particularly busy days. I am relieved to find that while my priorities have changed, my love for research has not. I used to walk around the lab with experiments on my mind and a song in my heart, and that is still true. But now, from time to time I suddenly break into a smile when I remember something one of my daughters said. Granted, biomedical research is interesting, but having a 3-year-old say “Mummy, can you kneel down so I can ride you?” is priceless.