A professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) for ten years, biologist Fernanda Staniscuaski felt the challenge of being a scientist and mother in Brazil.
After having her first child and taking maternity leave in 2013, her career suffered several losses that could have been avoided. “The curious thing is that this impact is not immediate. In 2014, I still won notices to continue with my research. However, from 2015 onwards, as I did not publish scientific articles in that period, my projects were no longer approved”, he says.
“I had a break in my career to be a mother and it felt like I was no longer fit for the system,” she laments.
Faced with the difficulties, Staniscuaski decided to act: his first step was to post on social media reporting the case. “Several people responded, saying they were going through the same situation”, observes the biologist.
There, in 2016, the embryo of Parent In Science (Paternity/Maternity in Science, in free translation) was born, an initiative that discusses motherhood (and fatherhood) in the Brazilian scientific environment and tries to create support and social support policies for families at universities and research institutes.
The project, which has already achieved important achievements and has been exported to other countries in Latin America, has just won the Inspiring Women in Science Award, given by the magazine Nature, one of the most prestigious academic publications in the world. This is the first time that a Brazilian group receives the honor.
a poorly understood pause
Staniscuaski explains that one of the most used metrics to determine a scientist’s productivity is the number of articles he writes and publishes.
This is one of the main elements evaluated by institutions, such as the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and research funding agencies in the states (the case of Fapesp in São Paulo and Faperj in Rio de Janeiro, for example), in time to award research grants.
Now, imagine what happens when the scientist becomes a mother. Right after giving birth, she takes maternity leave for about six months. And even when you go back to work, the pace won’t be the same, at least for the first few years of your baby’s life.
Without the publication of recent articles, these women cannot prove their productivity and end up being eliminated from the notices that pay for scientific work.
And this creates a vicious circle: without money, it is not possible to continue with your studies. Without the studies, there are no new articles. And without the articles, the measure of productivity continues to go downhill.
“We talk so much about diversity in science, but the institutions themselves don’t usually cultivate this. They think that the career happens in a linear way, without pauses or transformations”, says Staniscuaski.
“A brief interruption in the work of scientists makes it seem that they no longer belong to that environment”, he adds.
The biologist remembers that Parent In Science was born in 2016 with a group of seven people (six mothers and one father). “We were all fathers and mothers not long ago and we had this concern: what will our career be like and what can we do to change things?”
the picture of reality
Fernanda Reichert, a professor at the UFRGS School of Administration, says that she heard about Parent In Science during a lecture at the university.
“I had my daughter a few days after I took over as a teacher. At that time, I experienced everything that was being discussed there,” says the administrator, who joined and contributed to the project in mid-2016.
The researcher understands that a large part of Parent In Science’s success is due to the seriousness of the group’s actions, which began carrying out surveys among the academic community and even published scientific articles calling attention to the problem.
“From the beginning, our approach was data-centric. That way, we can talk to institutions based on something concrete, not just a speech,” says Reichert.
One of the most significant findings of the group was that a woman, after becoming a mother, usually takes four years to start recovering the same level of productivity as before.
“That’s exactly what happened to me. Returning to professional activities is always a bit confusing, and we get that feeling of guilt. It seems that we are working too hard and forgetting about the family, or vice versa”, confesses Reichert.
Maternity in Lattes
One of the Parent In Science actions that generated the most repercussion was “Maternity in Lattes”, a campaign so that periods of leave after having a child were registered in official databases.
Maintained by CNPq, the Curriculum Lattes is a kind of LinkedIn for Brazilian researchers, where all the activities they do are reported, such as participation in conferences, publication of articles and all academic training (master’s, doctorate, among others).
After pressure by social media and several meetings with representatives of the platform, the group finally managed to get information about motherhood into the curriculum.
Since April 2021, Brazilian scientists have been able to enter the period in which they took leave after the birth of their children.
Staniscuaski understands that the change has practical repercussions for the career of scientist mothers.
“Now, when evaluating the curriculum for granting scholarships, institutions can check the periods of absence and understand why articles were not published or why there was less productivity”, he points out.
In the biologist’s view, the achievements do not stop there. “The change considers that motherhood has an effect on careers and women receive a greater sense of acceptance and belonging”, he concludes.
Pandemic aggravated the scenario
If the situation of scientific mothers was not the best, the arrival of Covid-19 further deepened the inequalities and difficulties.
This scenario was portrayed in another article produced by Parent In Science. Using an electronic form, the group collected data from 3,300 Brazilian researchers from different areas of knowledge and from various educational institutions.
The results show that male scientists experienced the least loss of productivity during the coronavirus crisis. On the other hand, black mothers and researchers were the most affected during this period.
“These impacts are likely a consequence of the well-known unfair division of household tasks between men and women, a fact that was exacerbated throughout the pandemic,” the article describes.
With universities and laboratories practically closed for long months, many scientists had to adapt their routine and work from home (when possible). This new reality impacted the productivity of many of them, especially black women and mothers, as the Brazilian work pointed out.
And, once again, this poses a threat in the competition for future research grants.
“These data are fundamental for us to think about a policy of support in the institutions”, believes Staniscuaski.
Another initiative by Parent In Science after the arrival of Covid-19 was the creation of the Tomorrow Program, which encourages the completion of postgraduate studies after motherhood.
The idea was to set up a cow to provide financial support and supplement the income of these women with children who are enrolled in master’s and doctoral programs, but do not have a scholarship.
Fundraising, done through the internet, has 274 supporters and has managed to raise R$ 54,000 so far.
international award
Staniscuaski and Reichert did not hide the surprise they had with the announcement that Parent In Science had won the Nature Prize for Inspiring Women in Science, granted in an unprecedented way to a Brazilian group by one of the largest scientific publications in the world.
“It was something extremely relevant, as we are a young initiative, with only five years of history”, says the biologist.
“Everything goes by so quickly that sometimes we can’t even assimilate what we’ve done in that time. The award puts this in perspective and reinforces that we are changing things”, he interprets.
In addition to recognition, the award will also give US$ 40 thousand (R$ 225,000) to Parent In Science. “Everything we’ve done so far has depended on the cows and supporters. With that amount, we can think of even more relevant actions”, he adds.
After all the repercussions in Brazilian territory, Parent In Science begins to win Latin America: the work is already being replicated in Colombia and the same should happen soon in Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico.
Another frontier of the project is to increasingly involve scientific parents and stimulate debates about other family configurations and about parental leave, which allows for prolonged contact with their children.
For Reichert, initiatives like Parent In Science are successful because they show that people are not isolated and can solve common problems when they work together.
“It is possible to be a scientist and a mother. We are not alone and together we can reduce the difficulties we face.”
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