Women in Science – managing family and career
Finding the balance…
Group leader
'Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Stress'
Division of Stem Cells and Cancer
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
Combining a
scientific career and being a mum was never going to be easy, but is it worth
it? As mother from 2 young children and being a junior group leader trying to
set up our own lines of research and getting a foot in the door as an
independent research group in the field of stem cells is not an easy one. It’s basically
about running 2 fulltime jobs, which both take all the energy, attention and
time you have and even more. Of course there are the sleepless nights, because
there is always one of the kids waking up in the middle of the night from a bad
dream, teeth that try to get through, or just because they are convinced
sleeping time is over. The constant lack of sleep makes concentrating on
writing grants and papers not an easy task. And then there is the time
management. Before the children were there you had the whole day and evening
for yourself. If days were packed with meetings, talks and administrative
burden, there were always still the early morning, late afternoon and evening
hours, when everybody had left and you could just concentrate on reading and
writing and getting things done. But now, by the time it’s 5pm, it’s time to
pack my bag, pick up the kids from daycare or kindergarten, make sure they get
fed, take a bath, get their bedtime stories read and get them to sleep. And by
the time that’s all achieved, there is the rest of the evening to try to still
get some work done with all the energy that’s left. On top, during the day
there is always the pressure of knowing you only have a limited amount of time
to get things done in the lab before the mum job starts again. On top of this,
as a scientist, there is the traveling. Attending conferences and visiting
other institutes is an important part of our work to enforce the networking and
making sure the community knows you and knows the work your group is doing. But
being a mum of young children does not make the traveling to meetings an easy
one. Not only is there the organizational part to make sure that partner and
children are fine while mum is away. There is also the emotional part of
leaving your kids for days and for them cooping with mum being away.
But is it all just
difficult and exhausting? Well, it’s not for no reason that women are the
better multi-taskers! Of course it takes practice and does not always go
smoothly but running these two full time jobs forces you to do some good time
management, and makes you more efficient than before. There is simply no time
to waist. And yes, as much as I would want to, it is difficult to keep every
deadline there is and have all the work done in time. But it also enforces
making decisions about what really matters and the things that can be ignored
or delegated to others. It is impossible to get the same amount of work done as
the male colleague without a family or with a partner who takes care of
everything. But as long as you are not to hard on yourself, not wanting to do
everything perfect, but excepting that a little less perfect is also still ok,
it is doable. And having the right partner on your side, so you can step in
this adventure as a team, backing each other up when necessary, taking shared
responsibility in making sure this balance between family and careers will work
out is absolutely essential. Then, it’s absolutely worth it. Having children is
the greatest gift. But being able to be a scientist as well and doing what I
like most, only makes me a better mum and that’s beneficial for us all! So don’t
ask yourself whether there will ever be a good time to get children in a
science career. If you are ready for it, just go for it and one way or the
other you will make it happen, I’m sure!
Marieke
Essers, PhD
ISEH Publications Committee MemberGroup leader
'Hematopoietic Stem Cells and Stress'
Division of Stem Cells and Cancer
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
and
HI-STEM
- Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technologies and Experimental Im
Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120
Heidelberg
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