Balancing family and work

More than 45% of women scientists at top universities in the United States have indicated that their careers have kept them from having as many children as they want, according to an 8 August study, “Scientists want more children,” which appears in the journal PLoS ONE . The study, by sociologists Elaine Howard Ecklund of Rice University and Anne Lincoln of Southern Methodist University, indicates that 24.5% of male scientists surveyed indicated the same concerns. The study also found that among junior scientists, 29% of women indicated concern that a science career would prevent them from having a family; 7% of men indicated the same concern.