|
Juggling Work and Family
Three UCSD Women Scientists Talk About Making It All Work Out
Ioana Patringenaru | January 22, 2007
How do you block out time to spend with your family when there’s always so much work to be done? What’s the best time to have children for a woman scientist? And will you still love science – and your job – once your children are born?
Three UCSD women scientists tried to answer these questions, and more, Friday during a panel sponsored by UCSD’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) group. The organization’s goal is to answer questions about balancing career and family life, as well as creating connections and a sense of identity for women scientists, its leaders said.
Panel members work in different fields, are at a different stage in their career and provided different perspectives.
Susan Little is an associate professor in the department of medicine, division of infectious diseases. She directs the clinical core of the acute infection and early disease research Program at UCSD. She also co-chairs the HIV prevention science committee and sits on several journal editorial boards. She has two children, ages 13 and 12. They were born while Little completed a fellowship at UCSD.
Susanne May is an assistant professor in the division of biostatistics. Her research focuses on neurosciences and diseases like Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS. She has two young children. Her son, now 8, was born while she was in graduate school, which delayed graduation by a year. Her daughter was born while she was teaching at UCLA, so May only took two weeks off after her birth.
Orit Shefi is a post-doc in the Division of Biological Sciences, and the mother of three sons, who were born while she was working on her master’s and doctorate. She took more than three months maternity leave for each child, but stayed connected to the university while she was away. She always knew she would come back to an academic career, she explained. Moving to the United States from Israel and uprooting her family was the toughest decision she has faced so far, she said.
The three women shared tips about separating work and family life. Little and May said they tried to focus on their children as soon as they got home. May said she warns her colleagues she won’t be checking e-mail between 5 and 8 p.m. Little makes dinner and helps with homework. She also tries to leave her computer behind when her family goes on vacation. To spend more time with her family, she turns down more than half of her professional engagements that involve traveling.
All three panelists said they work after their children go to bed. They also stressed the importance of quality child care while parents are away. “If you have kids, your nanny becomes a critical part of your life,” Little said. Get a housekeeper or cleaning lady if you can afford it, they also said.
Shefi and May said they’ve learned to focus on work when a deadline is looming. They’ll make up for it later. You can hire a sitter or a nanny for your children, so you can spend more time at work, Shefi said. May said she learned to schedule play dates with other families for her children on weekends when she needs to work. She’ll return the favor later.
Mothers can feel under constant pressure, worrying that their work will never be done, Little said. They have to let go, she said. They might feel guilty about working at times, but children will soon understand why work is important, she added. Having children brings tremendous rewards, she said, but “it’s a 120 percent full-time job.”
The three female scientists also offered different perspectives about the best time to have children. Little said her goal was to be done with child bearing before getting on a faculty track. May pointed out that assistant professors now can automatically stop their tenure clock for one year after the birth of a child or for two years with two children. The best time to have children depends on your field, said Linda Zangwill, co-chair of UCSD’s WISE, who was in the audience Friday. It also depends on your finances and how much help you can get from your family and your partner, the panelists said.
All also said work remained important for them after they had children. “If you have a love of science before you had children, it’s not going to go away,” May said.
After the talk, graduate students Victoria Winters and Corrine Lardy said they found the panel helpful. “These are the kinds of things that I think about right now,” said Lardy.
“I liked being able to hear different women’s experiences,” Winters chimed in.
|
