An academic mother’s wish list: Our blog post for Nature.com

Here at Mama is an Academic we are delighted to announce that Nature.com has published a post from us.  We gathered input from all of you, and via our Twitter account (@Mamacademic) on things that would make your career as an academic mother easier.  We have taken your input on board, and written a list of 12 ways in which women can be supported as academic mothers.  These include:

3 things employers can do:

1. Have procedures and policies in place to manage maternity leave
2. Keep people (flexibly) involved during maternity leave
3. Recognise maternity leave as a career break

6 things labs or research groups can do:

1. Job sharing
2. Flexibility and part time and remote working
3. Job security
4. Support for mums to say no
5. Meetings and events timetabled in core hours
6. Support for mum’s attendance at conferences or bringing baby to work

3 things academic leadership can do:

1. Public acknowledgment of academic motherhood as a challenge
2. Recognise diversity
3. Normalisation of these behaviours

Please do read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00019-x