Combining Parenting and a Science Career.

THE SOBERING NEWS FOCUS ARTICLE " FAMILY matters: Stopping tenure clock may not be enough " (Y. Bhattacharjee, 17 Dec. 2004, p. 2031) shows how little has changed in the last 20 years to make child rearing possible for a woman scientist who receives her Ph.D. or M.D. around age 27, completes her post-doc near her 30th birthday, and is then off on a 6-year race toward academic tenure with 60-to 80-hour work weeks. The only new incentive for early parent-ing mentioned is a pilot program by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to " enable principal investigators (PIs) to hire a technician for up to 2 years to assist a postdoc in their lab who has primary caregiving responsibilities. " I would suggest that such funds might be used more flexibly and more effectively when directed specifically to the mother herself. Why not make available—on a competitive basis related to professional promise or performance—4-year grants (at a level of about $20,000 to $25,000 per year) for domestic childcare support? A woman scientist would be eligible to apply as soon as she has secured a postdoctoral or junior academic position, but actual payment and start of the 4-year grant would only commence a couple of months before the expected birth of the baby, which would have to occur within 3 to 4 years of the date the grant was approved. This support might attract women into demanding scientific careers when they are otherwise not prepared to do so because of their desire for childbearing and child care in the home. When I made this suggestion in 1988 (1), I received many enthusiastic letters from readers who ranged from female graduate students to two female members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. But even though foundation heads, university presidents, and government officials commented in glowing terms when I approached them, all felt that financial implementation should come from someone else's purse. Has the time finally come to once more raise the issue? IN HIS NEWS FOCUS ARTICLE " FAMILY MATTERS: stopping tenure clock may not be enough " (17 Dec. 2004, p. 2031), Y. Bhattacharjee discusses the negative impact of childbearing on junior faculty due for a tenure decision. This issue affects women at every rung of the academic ladder. While there is abundant evidence for the health benefits of early child-bearing and sustained breast-feeding for both mother …