Parenting and the science career

[sairy_gamp]

I'm a dad in my extremely late 30's and a field biologist.

What strikes me is that among my 20 or so colleagues in my agency, generally my age an older, I'm one of only 4 people who have children. More curious is that, of the senior scientists who run this organization, only 1 has ever had children.

Now I'm not trying to judge anyone... but I do wonder... is this common in science in general? If so, why?

I only wonder this because by chance alone, our proportion of parents on staff would be much higher.

I have no complaints. My supervisors have been beautiful in their accomodation for my crazy live with small children, and their gracious support has engendered my loyalty in recent years even as other career opportunites have presented themselves to me.

Still, I wonder.

[Skippy918]

Do you travel a lot for your job? IME, people who are in field service, field apps, tend to travel a lot and they are usually single or married w/o kids.
I'm an engineer and I'm surprised of how many moms in my dept work. Most of the men are married with kids as well.

[GoestoShow]

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Edited by GoestoShow - 1/3/11 at 12:19pm

[Carita]

yup - very common. And most research biologists I know that bring in the $$$$ with a great research program and did have kids either spent very litle time parenting (my boss admitted to sleeping in the other room while the wife dealt with all feedings, etc.) or in their older age looks back with regret on the time they didn't have with their kids (think Cat Stevens Cats in the cradle).

Research is demanding and hard - and parenting is demanding and hard. Doing both well - even harder and you'll find very few people doing it. Very discouraging for the family minded, women especially.

[Geofizz]

Careful with the generalizations, folks.

I'm a physical science professor with two kids. I had both my kids pretenure. I travel some and spend plenty of my time with my kids. I've taken my 1 year tenure delay, and shifted some of my research methods to reduce my version of field work (data collection at national labs) to reduce travel for a few years. I carefully select my conferences and attend no more than 3 a year. I spend uber time on writing just a few proposals a year, so I have a funding rate of over 50% with probably less overall time spent writing.

Several women on the prof mom's thread here have done full field seasons with the babies in tow, and then coordinating with their spouse for when kids are older.

The data show that many women choose not to have kids as a result of their scientific career. Having children pretenure decreases the rate that women get tenure, compared to women without kids, but increases it for men, compared to men without kids.

To answer your specific question, almost all the men in my department have 1-2 kids. One has 3 kids. Of the 4 women in my department, two have kids. The other two never will. That's about typical for the women in my discipline (earth science). I think that your agency is likely a fluke unless it's all women or very hostile towards hiring scientists with families.

[_betsy_]

It seems to happen in other fields, as well. For example, I'm a newspaper designer/editor. I work nights. I have a 3 yo and an 11 mo. But I'm practically the only person in my department who has kids. And not just young kids, there's only one other person in my immediate department who has ever had a child, and her son is in college now.

Most of the people I work with are single, as well. I'm guessing it's because the shift is in the evening/night - doesn't give people much time to socialize and met other people.

Or maybe we're drawn to this type of work because we're not "people" people. Who knows?

[sharr610]

d

[binismom2001]

Fascinating, OP!
At my husband's institution, I have directly observed over 10 years that both Male and Female PI's and Post Docs indeed have a similar # of children in their families respectively, but then they either leave this high-caliber scientific institution for smaller, less-pressured environments, or are divorced. ( The numbers are pretty equal on who divorces whom, BTW. )
Admittedly, DH works at a very serious contender for the top scientific institution and so I would expect the childless/divorce rate to be higher. As it is, we ourselves have only one child and are not planning to have any more. DH is a PI and I am a SAHM, so that may make a difference in how happy we are here. ( Very...) We are an exception to the rule.
I'm fascinated to hear more!

[sairy_gamp]

hm. Just redid the math and it's more like 4 of 16 only counting permanent staff. Still substantial. And yes, we're majority women here.

Interesting observations. A friend left a university research job for a community college teaching position for these reasons.

As for myself, as I wrapped up my MSc work I specifically turned down and invitation to a PhD program because I coudn't see the benefit of spending another 4-6 years splitting my time between school, work and family. Especially because I already had my career. In my little fantasy world I'm hoping my publication and funding record and experience will give me some edge over freshly-minted 20something PhD's in future jobs and grants. We'll see how that goes...

[namaste_mom]

I'm one of those field scientists that geofizz referred to. I take my kids into the field with me on both international and national trips. I take my kids to conferences. And, I have a lot of kids, 3 living and growing another. Out of 13 professors, 3 are women and all have kids (most of the men also have kids, maybe three do not, two because they are not married). I write grants, manage students, teach, and research and still try to keep up in my field.

Whether or not one has kids or no kids or fewer kids all depends on a family's personality. The sciences are high stress and the people that tend to gravitate toward the sciences may tend to not have a lot of kids but that is not always the case.

[meemee]

right now i am a student heading down the science line.

there is i notice a distinct difference between work fields. teaching cc or univs are not that demanding as holding a post in a company. most of the science faculty here have kids.

however in the office scene - yes many mama's drop out eventually. many try to hold on, but by the end of 6 months if not earlier they do drop out.

in teh company where i did my internship - same thing. many did not even have partners. however they were off doing various different things with their fingers in many pies.

almost all the science or science related proffs that i know, usually have been able to take their family with them - esp. before their kids started school.