Parenthood in Science: Care, Careers, and Structural Inequality
As a collaborative effort between the five Max Planck institutes in Berlin, a workshop on the often-overlooked topic "Parenthood in Science" took place on June 30 at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. The workshop provided a space for critical reflection on how parenthood, the desire to have children, and unpaid care work shape academic careers, workplace culture, and knowledge production itself.
Sooner or later, many academics face decisions about becoming parents, influenced by personal wishes, societal norms, and structural constraints. Yet in our society, reconciling a career with raising children remains challenging – especially for women, and particularly during the career-defining years when family planning often becomes a pressing consideration. While this issue is challenging regardless of one’s profession, it is especially precarious in academia. Pursuing an academic career and starting a family often seem almost mutually exclusive, or at least to significantly hinder one another. Despite the profound impact this issue has on those affected, it is still discussed far too rarely. The workshop “Parenthood in Science: Care, Careers, and Structural Inequality” was therefore organized to create a space for parents - as well as for those who wish to become parents or are grappling with that decision -to find information, engage in reflection, and exchange personal experiences.
“One morning, I woke up earlier than my children - a rare moment in the life of a mom with two small children - and as I sat alone on the balcony, the thought came to me: I can’t possibly be the only one who struggles to reconcile a scientific career with motherhood.” – with these words Dr. Lena Eckert opened the morning session of the workshop. Dr. Eckert, a sociologist, gender studies scholar, and founder of the “Motherhood and Academia” network, gave a lecture on “Parenthood in Science: Care, Careers, and Structural Inequality.” She highlighted current data on parenthood and academic careers, structural inequalities, and possible strategies for change and empowerment.
Dr. Eckert pointed out that women are severely underrepresented in academic leadership positions, in part because they shoulder a disproportionate share of care work—whether caring for their own children or looking after relatives—which often comes at the expense of their professional capacity, productivity, and, ultimately, career progression. This results not only in the numerical inequality of women, which can be clearly quantified, but also in less visible, more subtle forms of disadvantage. In this context, Dr. Eckert referred to the “standpoint perspective”: questions - in science, just as in the rest of society - are always posed from particular viewpoints. The culture of debate and the formulation of research questions become skewed when they are defined only by a selected segment of our society rather than by a representative cross-section of it. Dr. Eckert described the key hurdles that parents - whether men or women- encounter in academia and gave some examples of how certain problems are addressed more effectively in other countries. At the end of her talk, she outlined ideas and proposals for addressing these issues: a fairer distribution of care work and its decoupling from womanhood, significantly greater recognition of care work—for women as well as for men—and, ultimately, stronger institutional support for and greater awareness of family-related issues in research.
In the afternoon, participants took part in a hands-on workshop titled “(The desire of) having kids and science – space for reflection for academics.” The workshop provided parents, as well as those planning to become parents, with an opportunity to share their personal experiences. It included a joint analysis of the structural conditions surrounding parenthood and family issues in academia, as well as guided reflection on participants' personal wishes and decisions. The solidarity-based exchange with peers aimed to build and strengthen awareness and support networks and, ultimately, to empower participants through the sharing of personal experiences.
The workshop Parenthood in Science was a joint initiative of the gender equality officers at the five Max Planck Institutes (MPIs) in Berlin: The Fritz Haber Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and the International Max Planck Research School for Elementary Processes in Physical Chemistry (IMPRS-EPPC). Through this cross-institute collaboration, the organizers created a platform for dialogue and critical reflection on the structural challenges that parenthood and care responsibilities pose within academia, while fostering exchange and networking across the Berlin Max Planck community.
