Question: Is it hard being a full time mother and working in science?

Helen Fletcher answered on 15 Jun 2011:

Hi mimi22 thank you for asking!! On a good day I feel like I have everything. I have a fantastic job and two wonderful children and am so lucky to be able to have these things. When I’m tired, or my grant got rejected, it is hard. Science is still a very male dominated career. The more senior you get the less women there are. You are expected to travel a lot and go to seminars that run 5.30-7pm which is exactly the time us mums have to rush out to put the kids to bed. We often can’t attend as many of these things as our male colleagues and this puts you at a disadvantage for promotion etc. Science is such a great thing to do and women (in my experience!) often make better scientists than men. Us working science mum’s try to support each other and hopefully if we fight some battles things will be better for the next generation…!