Traditionally science has been a male-dominated field. Those women who did venture into scientific research and pursue graduate degrees often dropped out either of school, or of the workforce, due to pressures and constraints that arise from having a family and other responsibilities. Mixing graduate school with raising a family is stressful enough, but wait until you get into the workforce and have more pressures and less flexible hours!

I, myself, knew a professor where I studied who failed to get tenure after a rumored 2-3 attempts, because she seemed to have difficulty balancing her home life with establishing a successful research program. I commuted with her for several months and she seemed always on the edge of a nervous breakdown. When I was in graduate school I read about a study that said because women are more “social” than men, they often dropped out of graduate school and those polled often cited the long hours in the laboratory alone as the reason. I can’t deny feeling that way myself sometimes. However, for some, the solitude is very relaxing and therapeutic, especially if you are surrounded by people and noise the rest of the time.

If you are a woman in science, which type are you? Do you enjoy your solitude? Do you even experience that anymore? I know there are so many people in the lab where I did my doctorate you could almost always count on running into someone no matter what hour of the night or weekend. For woman looking for a little support, there’s a novel portal from the UK called Mums in Science that contains articles and topics for discussion relating to being a mother in the scientific world. Some of the material is serious, some is lighthearted. Parenting suggestions and advice for handling stress can be found along with meeting announcements, career advice and more. Also check it out to find links to other career-“mum”-focused webpages.