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About half of the undergraduate and roughly 40 percent of graduate degree recipients in science and engineering are women. As increasing numbers of these women pursue research careers in science, many who choose to have children discover the unique difficulties of balancing a professional life in these highly competitive (and often male-dominated) fields with the demands of motherhood. Although this issue directly affects the career advancement of women scientists, it is rarely discussed as a professional concern, leaving individuals to face the dilemma on their own.
To address this obvious but unacknowledged crisis—the elephant in the laboratory, according to one scientist—Emily Monosson, an independent toxicologist, has brought together 34 women scientists from overlapping generations and several fields of research—including physics, chemistry, geography, paleontology, and ecology, among others—to share their experiences. From women who began their careers in the 1970s and brought their newborns to work, breastfeeding them under ponchos, to graduate students today, the authors of the candid essays written for this groundbreaking volume reveal a range of career choices: the authors work part-time and full-time; they opt out and then opt back in; they become entrepreneurs and job share; they teach high school and have achieved tenure.
The personal stories that comprise Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory not only show the many ways in which women can successfully combine motherhood and a career in science but also address and redefine what it means to be a successful scientist. These valuable narratives encourage institutions of higher education and scientific research to accommodate the needs of scientists who decide to have children.
A. Pia Abola, biochemist, writer, and editor
Caroline (Cal) Baier-Anderson, University of Maryland, Baltimore; Environmental Defense
Joan S. Baizer, University at Buffalo
Stefi Baum, Rochester Institute of Technology
Aviva Brecher, U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Teresa Capone Cook, American Heritage Academy
Carol B. de Wet, Franklin & Marshall College
Kimberly D'Anna, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Anne Douglass, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Elizabeth Douglass, Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Katherine Douglass, George Washington University
Deborah Duffy, University of Pennsylvania
Rebecca A. Efroymson, U.S. government research laboratory
Suzanne Epstein, Food and Drug Administration
Kim M. Fowler, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Debra Hanneman, Whitehall Geogroup, Inc. and Earthmaps.com
Deborah Harris, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Andrea L. Kalfoglou, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Marla S. McIntosh, University of Maryland
Marilyn Wilkey Merritt, George Washington University
Emily Monosson, toxicologist and writer
Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rachel Obbard, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England
Catherine O'Riordan, Consortium for Ocean Leadership
Nanette J. Pazdernik, independent author and molecular biologist
Devin Reese, National Science Resources Center
Marie Remiker (pseudonym)
Deborah Ross, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
Christine Seroogy, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Marguerite Toscano, independent geoscientist, writer, and editor
Gina D. Wesley-Hunt, Montgomery College
Theresa M. Wizemann, Merck & Co., Inc.
Sofia Refetoff Zahed, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Gayle Barbin Zydlewski, Cove Brook Watershed Council, Maine; University of Maine
Reviews
"Women trying to squeeze a career and family duties into one 24-hour day will gain much affirmation from this collection of essays. The writers, who all balance science careers and motherhood, provide a fascinating insight into a world too often kept hidden. For those without children it should come with a health warning: the juggling and compromises these women have learned to live with may add up to a sobering reality check for those who still think they can have it all. For some it may prove a powerful contraceptive." New Scientist, June 2008
"At last—a book to convince women scientists that there is life beyond the professoriate. These brief life stories demonstrate that women professionals do not have to play by men's rules to have a career. They also show the world that women scientists are not only literate but also witty."—Phoebe Leboy, University of Pennsylvania, President, Association for Women in Science
"Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory is an engaging, moving, and informative book. It depicts the challenge of combining a career in science with motherhood, using the voices of real women to portray the diversity of possible experiences."—Jo Handelsman, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and Chair, Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
"The stories in Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory are captivating and the picture of science as a field was truly sobering. I found myself thinking about the authors' fascinating stories long after I finished reading this book."—Joan C. Williams, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of the Law
About the Author
Emily Monosson, is an independent toxicologist. She lives in Montague, Massachusetts.
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