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Is it possible to build a successful scientific career while being an active parent? This is a question that resonates with many who work in academia while managing a family life.
On 11 February 2025, Chemistry Europe and Angewandte Chemie hosted an event as part of the IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB). More than 60 participants gathered in the Wiley-VCH offices in Berlin and Weinheim, Germany, to exchange and discuss. The event, the sixth instalment in the journals’ continued support of the GWB, provided a platform to address the unique challenges faced by academics who are parents.
To foster an open discussion on career progression, gender disparities, and work–life balance, three distinguished speakers opened the event by sharing their personal experiences and insights on balancing academia and parenting. A networking session over tasty snacks and drinks followed, giving room for engaging conversations between academic researchers, industry professionals, science communicators, representatives of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), and editors of the Chemistry Europe journals and Angewandte Chemie.
Figure 1. GWB events held in Berlin (left) and Weinheim (right).
Overcoming the Leaky Pipeline
Jun.-Professor Schirin Hanf from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, opened the event with a thought-provoking presentation on gender inequality in academic careers. She discussed statistics provided by the GDCh, KIT, and UNESCO on the “leaky pipeline” in higher education and research, that is, the decreasing share of women with progressing career stage. Hanf sees the postdoc time as a bottleneck where academic requirements and starting a family are often at odds which each other, causing many women to leave the system.
Drawing from her own journey, she candidly discussed the difficulties she faced when navigating parenthood during her Ph.D. and beyond, and she emphasized the importance of support networks in and beyond academia. In the future, she would like to see an improvement in accommodating and understanding the specific requirements of parents as well as more reliable daycare structures.
Be the Change You Want to See
Professor Ralf Tonner-Zech from Leipzig University, Germany, followed up by sharing insights into the challenges of balancing an academic career and fatherhood. In his current position, Tonner-Zech wants to be the role model he was missing as a junior researcher and thus creates opportunities for his co-workers that enable them to become active parents.
While he is certain that most men nowadays want to be present and engaged fathers, present structures and expectations do not always support this wish. Over the past 20 years, Tonner-Zech has observed the beginning a positive mindset shift, but increased awareness, better mental-health support, and workplace flexibility are required for a sustainable long-term improvement.
On a personal level, there is also a continuous need for self-reflection and adaptation, as he clearly laid out. He himself had to regularly re-evaluate his career aspirations in the context of his desire to maintain a strong family presence.
Support and Boundaries
Dr. Theresa Kueckmann from Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, highlighted, in the final talk of the input session, how editors and publishers in their unique roles can support scientists in and beyond academia to be active parents. Flexible timelines for authors and reviewers with family commitments can always be discussed, as diversity and different perspectives are highly valued.
As a manager, Kueckmann is trying to help her colleagues be their best and most effective at work while encouraging them to set necessary boundaries required for being a parent, caring for family members, or dedication to important causes outside of work. This includes flexible work arrangements, parental leave policies, and programs aimed at empowering women in STEM. These efforts contribute to reducing workplace biases, expanding career opportunities, and fostering long-term professional growth for parents in science.
Constructive Discussions
A panel discussion between the three panelists and the audience enriched the dialogue on academia and parenthood. Ideas on how to create supportive environments for professionals facing similar challenges were discussed and continued over breakfast.
Participants expressed their appreciation for the event, sharing their thoughts on its impact: “The event was very rewarding”, Charlotte Gerischer from the Young Chemists Network (JCF) Berlin stated, “and it provided a great opportunity to network and get input from other people”. GDCh Vice President Professor Sabine Becker (RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau) advocated for a continuation of these discussions: “Diversity, equality and inclusion is and remains a highly important and urgent topic that affects and concerns us all. Therefore, we must never stop talking about it, exchanging ideas, and networking.”
The 2025 Global Women’s Breakfast by Chemistry Europe and Angewandte Chemie served as a powerful reminder that achieving a fulfilling scientific career while being a parent is possible with the right support systems, workplace policies, and sharing of experiences. Events like these help pave the way for a more inclusive and equitable academic and professional landscape, inspiring future generations to pursue their ambitions without compromising on family life.
Further Reading
- R. A. Shenvi, Hidden Lives. Early Childhood Care as an Academic: The Slow Burn, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202301979
- G. E. Derrick, P.-Y. Chen, T. van Leeuwen, V. Larivière, C. Sugimoto, The relationship between parenting engagement and academic performance, Sci. Rep. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26258-z
- A. C. Morgan, S. F. Way, M. J. D. Hoefer, D. B. Larremore, M. Galesic, A. Clauset, The unequal impact of parenthood in academia, Sci. Adv. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd1996
- R. Ghosh, Can Parents in Academia ″Have It All″?, Scholarly Kitchen 2024.
Also of Interest
Inclusive chemistry education, intersectional perspectives on gender and the brain, a unique personal perspective – A Global Women’s Breakfast event by Chemistry Europe and Angewandte Chemie
Conversation with three established African chemists
Insights from personal experiences about care responsibilities as well as suggestions for institutional approaches to help improve the work–life balance in academia
