We are all aware of the challenges that a career in Physics brings. Motivated by a strong passion for research and everyday job competition, we pour a lot of energies and efforts into our work. But the challenges grow when you’re a mother in academia. Examples of female scientists who could build a family along with their career often count on partners that equally share family responsibilities, and on a professional environment that promotes family values.

Let’s get together to celebrate the achievements of the mothers in academia, and contribute to create a fairer academic path for mothers. For if not everyone shares the same need of building a family, we all understand its worth.

Thank you to Prof. Ruth Durrer and Prof. Silvia Penati for sharing few words about their personal stories.

A few words from Prof. Ruth Durrer

I am professor of theoretical physics and mother of 3 ‘children’ who in the mean time are adults (I just became grandmother a month ago).

I had my first child already as a PhD student. The father of my children, an artist, stayed home and looked after the children and cooked for the family. This stared more than 35 years ago and so I am sometimes smiling when a young colleague tells me how amazing her husband is that is taken the children by himself every week for 1 day.

I think children are one of the greatest adventure in our life and both women and men will both have richer lives if we can fully live this adventure together. 

A short story - Prof. Silvia Penati

It is probably true that psychological stress can cause bad effects at physical level. For sure this has been always the case for my first little child, Matteo. From one year to four-five years old, he managed to get any kind of disease every single time I was leaving for a few days for my job. I remember as a nightmare calling home from the gate for the last “ciao” and coming to know from my husband that Matteo was getting sick with higher and higher temperature. Systematically. Every single time. No exceptions. 

Once, I was leaving in the morning to meet some colleagues in another city and start a collaboration. It was a working day and Matteo was at the kindergarten. I was already seated in the train waiting to leave, when I got a call. My god, Matteo’s teacher. Hi, good morning, what’s up? Hi Silvia, Matteo is not very well, he has very high temperature. Somebody has to come and pick him up. NOW.

What can I do? I am already on the train, the ticket in my pocket, the train is leaving in a few minutes …. my husband is far from home (he works in another city), no parents to help, no nanny in the morning…. I have very short time to make up my mind. Two options: Either I call my husband and ask him to come home - he will take at least two hours, but ok Matteo can survive - or I give up my trip.

In a bunch of seconds I got off the train, I threw my ticket in the trash, I called my friends to tell them that I was going to cancel my trip and ran to the kindergarten as fast as I could. Few months later my collaborators published a paper on the subject we were supposed to start discussing that damned day.

I am still happy today to have made that choice.