How to combine physics and a family

However, women working in industry may find things a little easier. Companies who have trained staff are generally keen to hang on to their investment. AEA Technology, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), British Telecom, the National Physical Laboratory and the UK AEA Fusion all offer the possibility of flexible part-time work after childbirth. Bill Anderton, a spokesman for BNFL, says that his company would consider people returning to work on a part-time basis, as long as their line-manager agrees. The firm’s only requirement is that the person returning to work must fit in with the business needs of a particular project. But other than that, says Anderton, there are no restrictions.

Helpful employers and back-to-work schemes clearly make a difference to women who have a family, but there are still many barriers to be broken down. Not least is the problem of perception – many feel that “part-time science” lacks commitment. As Yasmin Robson says, “the idea of mothers and people who have taken a career break returning to science is a strange concept, certainly in physics, and it will take some time before it is accepted as normal.”

© IOP Publishing Ltd. Reproduced with permission.
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