Scientists get paid like shit in grad school and things don’t improve much when you’re a post doc. This pushes women (and men – but mostly women) who want families out of science. Just listen to the brilliant Claudia Alexander lay it out.

“I was never able to find the right mix of work and family — women carry more of the burden of the family in our society — and I found that I couldn’t do both. But many of my male colleagues have wives who do a lot of the family work for them. I used to say if I had known better I would have chosen to be a lawyer because for the same hours I would at least earn vastly more money, and then been able to afford support for some of the household and mothering tasks — a nanny and daycare, for instance. Some of my female colleagues also say that finding the right partner in life is essential to making that balance work.” [emphasis mine]