While talking to my friend, who is pursuing her PhD in Optical Physics, we started discussing about professional women, working along with us and are also mothers.
When we tried to put ourself in their shoes, we realized how difficult it actually is. These women don’t actually take break, when they have headaches/backaches. When they reach home in the evening, they get into their mom role. Taking care of the kids, their meals, their homework, their clothes etc. Getting to bed late and getting up early!
We, who don’t have kids to take care of, are so used to our ‘taking things for granted’ and carefree attitude. We could not stay in their shoes for long. We realized these women are supermothers -PiMothers!
We reached out some colleagues who are mothers or to-be-mothers. After talking with them, we decided to share their experiences and advice on PiMothers.
So far, we found that these women love their work and are stimulated by problems and challenges. No amount of household chores can give the intellectual stimulation that they get out of solving a problem. Don’t get me wrong, they love their family and children, just as other stay-at-home moms do, but they have so much to offer to the world in their field of research. And trust me, if they were to leave their work, that field would not be the same. Imagine, radioactivity research without Marie Curie, programming without Ada Lovelace.
STEM needs more women and the society needs to let these mothers be and not create divides — work and home. Its the least the society can do for them. Most of these mothers come alive when they are working on what they love. They are as happy when they solve a puzzle, as they are when they hear their child’s first words.
P.S. Please reach out to us on @pimothers if you are a mother in tech or know someone who would like to share their story/advice.
