Mom the Chemistry Professor

When is the "right" time? How can women meet the demands of a professorship while caring for a young family? Choosing to become a mother has a profound effect on the career path of women holding academic positions, especially in the physical sciences. Yet many women successfully manage to do both. In a new book Mom the Chemistry Professor, fifteen inspirational personal accounts describe the challenges and rewards of combining motherhood with an academic career in chemistry.

The authors of the contributions are all women at different stages of their careers and from a range of colleges, in tenure and non-tenure track positions. Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students of chemistry, these contributions serve as examples for women considering a career in academia but worry about how this can be balanced with other important aspects of life.

"While it may not have been easy being an outstanding scientist and mother, Marie Curie did both. The question of reconciling family life with a scientific career is still one that is asked today. Many women have combined successful careers as chemists in academia with motherhood; a few of them have shared their stories in this volume. While significant progress in increasing the number of professors who are women has been made, some significant challenges for all academic women chemists remain," said Professor Amber Charlebois of Fairleigh Dickinson University in the Foreword.

Mom the Chemistry Professor describes how the chemists overcame particular challenges, highlighting aspects of the systems which could be improved to accommodate women academics. The book particularly encourages more women to take on academic positions in the sciences.

More information:
Renee Cole, Cecilia Marzabadi, Gail Webster, Kimberly Woznack (Eds.)

Mom the Chemistry Professor
Personal Accounts and Advice from Chemistry Professors who are Mothers

Springer 2014, 217 p., 72 illus.in color

ISBN 978-3-319-06043-9

Provided by Springer