Nature Medicine | Spoonful of Medicine

Young mothers in science

Last week, the Office of Women’s Careers at Massachusetts General Hospital showed that with a little bit of financial help, young women scientists who temporarily leave the lab can successfully reclaim their careers when they come back.

When I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the biochemistry department had 30 faculty members — and only 2 were women.

The situation seems to have improved somewhat and 8 of the 37 principal investigators are women. The graduate student pool, in contrast, was half women when I was there and is at least that now.

You know where this is heading. Women are overwhelmingly the majority among biology majors in college, many make it to graduate school but then drop out along the way to the top. There are a hundred opinions — some, like Larry Summers’, quite controversial — about why that happens. And we’d like to hear your views about that too.

But one indisputable factor is that when women scientists leave the lab to have a baby, it’s very difficult for them to maintain research productivity. There are a scattered few programs to help women at this vulnerable point in their careers, which we wrote about in 2004 in the news feature, A lab of her own.

The MGH program, described in a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, gives two-year “bridge grants” of up to $50,000 to junior researchers who also care for young children. In the first nine years of the program, 90% of the recipients have remained at the MGH and more than half have received academic promotions at Harvard Medical School.

The amount is modest to be sure, but it helps the recipients — 40 so far — find practical solutions to their quandary. For example, Karen K. Miller, a 1999 recipient, applied her grant toward hiring a research assistant who continued Miller’s work on anorexia nervosa while she was away. It also shows an institution’s commitment to helping them with their careers — something many women scientists say is sorely needed.

Good news is that Harvard University, which recently found itself a woman president, is already exploring a similar model to help women at the university.

Comments

  1. Report this comment

    Alan Dove said:

    MGH’s results are consistent with what others find with these sorts of programs, i.e. they work. When I interviewed Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard awhile ago during the launch of her book, we talked about her own effort in this area, the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation ( https://www.cnv-stiftung.de/content/goals.html ). As she put it “it’s amazing how much you can help people, just with money.”

    It would be much better, of course, if the major granting agencies would develop unified programs like this to address the problem at the national level. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that, though.

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    apoorva said:

    Thanks for pointing that out, Alan. Last year, our former intern Alisa Opar also covered the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation’s program (https://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v12/n7/full/nm0706-720b.html).

    That program is a bit newer, it began in December 2004, but you’re right, there’s no doubt all these programs do work.

    I met Nüsslein-Volhard last year at this fancy Women in Science lunch at the Museum of Natural History. She is such an impressive woman and speaks so eloquently and clearly about what it means to be a senior woman researcher.

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    Charlotte said:

    It may be difficult for mothers — and fathers — to maintain research productivity after having children. But it seems a lot of them manage to do it.

    Several studies have concluded that women with and without children have similar levels of productivity (see the NEJM and JAMA citations below). But some studies conclude otherwise (see Annals of Internal Medicine citation), so it does seem to an unresolved area.

    In any case, these grants sound like a great opportunity for both moms and dads. But I’d be curious how many men applied: Most studies show that women academics with dependents spend more time with family than male academics with dependents.

    I think we’ll be on the path to true gender parity when men take as much responsibility for childcare as women—and when men feel free to take advantage of institutional opportunites such as these grants. I suspect that some might feel constrained.

    https://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/335/17/1282#R30

    https://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/254/6/781?ijkey=0e9da50afbf0f80d5a659f5ac9529fece3e1667f&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

    https://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/129/7/532

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    apoorva said:

    That’s a good point, Char, about the fathers. But these programs at least are all meant for women, not men. I don’t know of any that are meant for male scientists, but it would certainly be interesting to check…

  5. Report this comment

    Charlotte said:

    I just learned only women can apply to the program in Boston (I called to double check). Same seems to be true of the Nusslein-Vollhard Foundation, at least from the website. So I must post again:

    Men? Wouldn’t you like to be able to apply-or at least have the option? Are any men out there the primary caregiver in their families?

    True, by allowing only women to apply, the programs do specifically address the ‘leaky pipeline’ problem for women. But perhaps a program based on merit and need, without gender being a factor, would be more appropriate. That would allow ALL parents who are primary caregivers the opportunity of a boost at a demanding time in their professional and personal lives.

    Both men and women, for instance, generally qualify for “Tenure extension” programs when they have children.

    It seems self evident that shortly after birth Moms generally have more to do than Dads — but society seems to expect this pattern to continue as children mature. I worry that by granting awards only to women, these programs may reinforce the expectation that it’s Mom that takes charge of childcare; I also think there’s certainly a few men out there also suffering from childcare dilemmas.

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    Achaetes McNeil said:

    Men don’t need to apply for this kind of programmes. For many of them, there is a programme called “Marriage” in which successful applicants get support in the form of a “Wife”. Sad but oh so true!

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    Marianne Bryan said:

    As a young mother in science (I have two daughters, ages 17mo and 4.5yrs) with a husband that is also in academics, I have a couple comments on the differences between the care given by the father versus the mother, even when they are pretty much equal partners in the marriage. These comments come directly from my experience and observation of other parents I work with or whose children attend the same early learning center as my children.

    1) Only the mother can breast-feed her baby. This takes a lot of time at home and dedication/time at work to pump every day.

    2) Only the mother has the hormones changes associated with pregnancy/childbirth/breastfeeding that also alter her thinking/concentration, etc.

    3) If the mother is breastfeeding, she is most likely also having her sleep disrupted on a routine basis for a year or more.

    4) Mothers probably do most of the routine baby check-ups that are required (every 3 months) for infants/toddlers.

    5) Mothers are more likely to be the parent to drop off and pick up their young child from day-care (this means you have a very defined schedule, which makes it hard to get experiments done sometimes…)

    So, these are reasons why having a little extra help can go a long way towards keeping a young mother in science.