There are pros and cons to this.
The con is that a surprisingly few number of geoscience women have kids. So many are surprised to hear you want kids. This added to my awkwardness when I had to announce I was pregnant. But that all fell awake when my announcement was met with nothing but joy. It made my first visit to the department an interesting one though when my little one was 6 weeks. The majority of the scientists were too scared to hold her for fear of breaking her! It was the admin staff, students with younger siblings and the few staff with kids who ventured closer.
The pro was that so many women leave the field of science when they have a family, that universities are trying really hard to he accommodating. My PhD supervisor, my host and the head of my department were phenomenal. They never made me feel guilty, and even were ok with my 9 month old coming to meetings and making noise. I can never thank them enough.
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