First I'd like to say that this is a rather important newgroup. There are
many issues that are relevant to women in science today. I'm personally
concerned about having children. In Cassandra Smith's post, she says
" having children does not appear to afect the success of women in
science". I'm not so sure I would agree with that. I'm met a number of women
who have been questioned about "an unproductive year as a postdoc".
I'm 29 and in the second year of my first (and hopefully only) postdoc. I
have a good publication record and have decided that an industrial job
is probably the right thing for me. What I'd like to know is when do women
have children? I had some friends who had children in graduate school
(mostly by accident). As a postdoc, I haven't met any other postdoc having
children. It's my understanding that it is very detrimental to your
career to have children during your postdoc. I'm sure that my advisor
would not be happy if I had children at this point of time. I also foresee the
need to establish myself in some position (whether it be academic
or industrial) for a certain amount of time before I have
a child. So what are other people out there doing? Is every woman in
science (or woman in general) having children at a later age? How do you
cope with the demands of parenting? I'd like to know.
Dorothea Kominos
kominos at jkdec.rockefeller.edu
