Academia’s parent trap: the struggles faced by researcher mothers

Academia’s parent trap: the struggles faced by researcher mothers

Alison Behie was approaching 40 when she underwent multiple rounds of IVF, enduring the mental and physical turmoil of miscarriage and uncertainty along the way.


How good is the academic workplace at supporting women like Behie, a biological anthropology researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra? “The primary feeling was just this guilt that I had prioritized trying to get where I was in my career over my family. That’s not a way anyone should ever feel,“ she says.


Behie is joined by Karen Jones, whose research focus at the University of Reading, UK, includes women’s career advancement and gender equality in higher education. Jones says the precarity of research careers is often most pronounced at the point when many researchers are contemplating parenthood, telling Levy: “It’s not uncommon for people to be employed on one temporary contract after another possibly for several years. And this often coincides with the age at which people are making decisions about having a family.”


Finally, Wendy Dossett, a professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of Chester, UK, describes the pressures facing women in academia to juggle career and family ambitions, saying: “I suffered a bit from the assumption that I must be a child-free career woman, when, in truth, I was a broken-hearted, childless woman.”


Off Limits is a podcast series exploring topics that are often perceived as taboo in the workplace.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jaksot(221)

Why I study trauma's genetic legacy

Why I study trauma's genetic legacy

Rana Dajani studies epigenetics of trauma in vulnerable communities around the world. A molecular biologist based at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, Jordan, her research explores what genes are tur...

14 Heinä 202518min

The Māori values that make good sense in science

The Māori values that make good sense in science

In her role as director of Bioprotection Aotearoa, a New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence, Amanda Black works with local communities to protect the country’s natural and food-producing ecosystems...

7 Heinä 202522min

Celebrating researchers who make the scientific workplace more inclusive

Celebrating researchers who make the scientific workplace more inclusive

Nature's 2022 special issue on racism in science spawned a follow-up Q&A series with researchers who champion inclusion in their workplace or community.Now eight of the 21 Changemakers who have appear...

4 Heinä 20254min

Why science recruiters struggle to find high-calibre candidates

Why science recruiters struggle to find high-calibre candidates

In the final episode of this six-part podcast series about hiring in science, Julie Gould asks what it takes to be the perfect candidate for a science job vacancy.Lauren Celano, a careers coach who co...

13 Kesä 202517min

Should I use AI to help draft my science job application?

Should I use AI to help draft my science job application?

In the penultimate episode of this six-part podcast series about hiring and getting hired in science, Julie Gould investigates how artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by recruiters to draft job...

7 Kesä 202514min

Salary negotiations: a guide for scientists

Salary negotiations: a guide for scientists

Three researchers and a career coach discuss if there as much scope to negotiate salaries in academia as there is in industry.In either setting, they say, negotiation should not be a battleground. Hir...

30 Touko 202519min

How to delight your future boss at a science job interview

How to delight your future boss at a science job interview

Should you tailor your job interview style based on the age, gender and cultural background of the person asking the questions?Margot Smit and Dietmar Hutmacher compare their approaches to hiring and ...

23 Touko 202535min

Seeking a job in science? How hiring practices across industry and academia compare

Seeking a job in science? How hiring practices across industry and academia compare

Julie Gould compares hiring practices across industry and academia by seeking perspectives from Tina Persson, an organic chemist-turned-careers coach based in Malmö, Sweden, and Lauren Celano, a recru...

15 Touko 202518min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
herrasmieshakkerit
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rahapuhetta
rss-rahamania
rss-seuraava-potilas
rss-lahtijat
rss-merja-mahkan-rahat
rss-40-ajatusta-aanesta
rss-porssipuhetta
rss-levosta-kasin-yrittajyys
rss-vaikuttavan-opettajan-vierella
rss-draivi
rss-ma
inderespodi
leadcast
raksapodi