For many women in science and engineering, finding a balance between launching a career and raising a family can be difficult.
At a panel discussion on Monday in Hardin Hall, seven female scientists and engineers addressed the “elephant in the laboratory,” sharing their experiences facing and overcoming the challenge. The panel was focused primarily on women early in their careers, including graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and early-career faculty.
“Motherhood & Success in Science and Engineering” was co-sponsored by Northwestern and the University of Chicago, with an early afternoon panel held in Evanston and a later session held at the University of Chicago. Though the vast majority of the 60 attendees were women, some men also attended, and several panelists stressed the importance of men supporting their wives and female colleagues who are trying to balance their careers and motherhood.
The panel was necessary because of the new demands placed on women in science and engineering, said Holly Falk-Krzesinski, an organizer of the event and the director of the office for research development at NU.
“In recent years, the training period in science and engineering has extended,” Falk-Krzesinski said. “The most intense years of launching a career coincide with childbearing and childrearing years.”
The goal of the panel was to let women know what solutions exist, based on the experience of others who have been successful in balancing their careers and families, said Latonia Trimuel, the special projects coordinator in the Office for Research Development at NU who helped organize the event.
The panelists all agreed that balancing their careers and families was challenging.
“There is always more than you can do in a day, ” said panelist Cate Brinson, chairwoman of mechanical engineering department at NU and a mother of four.
Women also need to be direct with their professors and advisors about their needs when requesting time off for maternity leave or to stay home with children, said panelist Gina Wesley-Hunt.
“Stop apologizing … ask for what you want,” said Wesley-Hunt, Weinberg ’95, and currently works as an assistant professor at Montgomery College in Maryland.
The discussion was followed by a book signing of “Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out” with panelists Emily Monosson and Wesley-Hunt. The book is a collection of personal essays compiled and edited by Monosson in which 34 women scientists, including Wesley-Hunt, share their experiences concerning careers and motherhood.
The event’s organizers tried to show women that there was no “cookie-cutter solution” to balancing work and family life by incorporating as much diversity as possible into the panel, Falk-Krzesinski said. The panel included women who had children at different points in their career and worked in different settings.
A second goal of the event was to raise awareness at NU about the obstacles that face female scientists and engineers.
“(NU has) tenure stop-clock and paid paternity leave (for faculty), but for post-docs there is a ways to go,” said Falk-Krzesinski, who hoped that the event would help administrators realize that such issues need to be addressed.
Trimuel added that for post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, there is no official university policy regarding family leave, so arrangements vary.
Falk-Krzesinski said she was pleased by the number of people that attended the event and the attendees’ response to the speakers.
“There was a wonderful, enthusiastic response from the women,” she said. “I was listening to a lot of small conversations, where women extended their gratitude to the panelists. It gave women a new understanding.”
