I too am worried about the children issue. I very much want to have children,
but cannot see any way of doing this without losing out either on career
advancement, or on actually looking after my children! I think it may be
even harder in the UK than it is in the US since there are almost no wrkplace
nurseries, no tax exempt status for money spent on childcare and thus leaving
your children with someone else during the day is extremely expensive, and
well nigh impossible on a Science salary. I am a finishing grad student at
the moment, in a big plant science research institute - the John Innes. There
are only four women group leaders out of approximately 50 total, and only one
of these women has any children. And yes, I think the idea is that you wait
until you have your permanent job before you have children. That's fine when
there are enough jobs to go round, but at the moment that doesn't appear to be the case. What are we supposed to do if we don't get a job until our mid-to-late 30s? What does everybody think about job sharing? Is there anyone out there
who is successfully bringing up children without feeling that she's lost out
on her career? How many men are prepared to stay home and look after the childre
children? I do know of at least one instance of this, but this depends entirely
on having a very supportive, not very ambitious partner, or one who has a job
which can be done from home.
This issue really bothers me, so it would be good to hear from someone who can
say, hey it's not as bad as you think! Where is this person?
Emily Lawson, Lawson at uk.ac.afrc.jii
