For Monosson and the other women who contributed their stories to Motherhood, that often meant choosing nontraditional careers—as consultants, writers, lecturers. An academic post may be considered the gold standard, but many other—often unrecognized—opportunities do exist that enable women to continue to contribute to science without dropping out completely. Still, many of the women who leave academia express guilt and a sense that they let down their advisors or other women in the process, says Monosson. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), there are more than one hundred thousand women doctoral degree holders in the United States employed in the sciences, one-fifth of them working part-time. And while women may want to take part-time work while their children are young and then return to academia later, they may find that coming back is not that easy. “You either dive in and go with the flow, or step out of that water realizing that you may never be able to get back to the research university setting,” says Wolf-Wendel. Women who are serious about returning to the academic workforce can take a step in that direction with a special career-reentry fellowship. These fellowships—such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) career reentry supplement—help provide funding to investigators who have taken time off for family as they transition back into their research careers. In 2009 NIH put almost 17 million dollars in grants to study factors that influence the careers of women in the sciences, such as the impact of family-friendly policies in retaining women in the scientific workforce.
Tough Choices Those afraid of stepping off the tenure track altogether may find a way to accommodate the needs of their family and their research through parttime tenure-track positions. Such posts, which have been endorsed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), are cropping up at universities all over the United States. But the number of applicants for such positions remains low, as many women are uncertain of the expectations and possible stigmas attached a job that takes anything less than 100— or 110—percent.
Women in Science
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