Scientifically Speaking
My career as a scientist has revolved around one goal. To stay in the workplace.
Three decades ago, after doing well academically throughout high school, I expressed interest in choosing science as a major in college. My mother was not very supportive. I was surprised at her reluctance. As an educated Indian woman, she was my biggest supporter. But she was also the most pragmatic person in my life.
Her hesitation did not stem from a belief that girls innately lacked the ability to do well in scientific fields. Her concerns were more practical. She could foresee the potholes on the road that I had chosen.
For a woman, balancing home and career is hard enough, even when it is not tied to working in the laboratory. While girls in India may receive the same level of science education as the boys, the abysmally small number of women who continue to pursue a career in science bears witness to this fact.
Fortunately for me, fate intervened. I went to college, got married, moved to the United States, and then pursued my dream of getting a Ph.D. I landed a job before motherhood beckoned. By the time the baby arrived, I had already savored the excitement of working on innovative research in search of better medicines for human diseases.
