Jennifer Richard
BIO
Postdoctoral researcher at University of British Columbia (Canada). Mom of two boys.
Instagram: @the.momologist
Jennifer Richard
“I feel that having a family in academia is largely dependent on the support from supervisors and our partner.”
When I started my PhD program, I had no intention of having children during my PhD journey. With long days in the lab and weekend experiments I was mostly focused on my experiments and finishing my PhD journey “on time”. However, 4-5 years (the typical Swedish PhD duration) is a long time, and after a little more than half my program I decided that I didn’t want to wait any longer. I was determined to have a family while doing my PhD. However, I still felt a lot of pressure from work and to continue my research, so I decided to split my parental leave with my partner.
Sweden offers around a year of paid parental leave, so we decided to take 6 months each. Those 6 months flew by and before I knew it, I was back in the lab. It worked surprisingly well with my flexible work schedule, because although I occasionally missed some family time during weekends or evenings, I could pick up earlier other days or stay home sometimes when my son fell ill.
In fact, we (me and my partner) thought that it worked so well that we decided to try for our second. Growing up as an only child it was important for me that my son had a sibling, and preferably not too far apart in age. I became pregnant again, although, this time wasn’t as straight forward. I was nearing the end of my PhD time and parental leave during the last year wouldn’t extend my PhD position, but instead count down the days that I had left on my contract. Simultaneously, I felt that I had missed out on a lot of time during my son’s first year and I didn’t want to rush back to work this time.
In the end I was forced to quit my position and write and defend my PhD while on maternity leave (when my youngest was 6 months old) in hopes that I could be hired back at the end of my maternity leave to provide some work security while I applied for a postdoctoral fellowship.
Those 6 months were challenging, but I made it through and after my defense I could finally “relax”, not worrying about writing or thesis deadlines, and enjoy the rest of my maternity leave.
Defending during my maternity leave was largely due to the support that I got from my partner, who is very involved with the children and helps with all household tasks. We make a great team.
After my maternity leave, I returned for 9 months before my supervisor decided to let me go and I applied for grants to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, in Canada. After not getting the first round of grants that I was hoping for, my current supervisor offered me a 1-year position in hopes that I would receive a grant while already in Canada. We decided to make the leap and moved the whole family from Sweden to Canada. After a lot of uncertainty during the first year, I received the grant that I was hoping for and I’m currently loving my experience in my new lab.
I feel great support from my supervisor, and I feel that becoming a mother has helped me to not only become better at my job, but also put things into perspective, realising that other things are equally or more important, like spending time with my family.
In the end, I feel that having a family in academia is largely dependent on the support of supervisors and our partner, and I’m happy that I get to experience such a positive, supportive network in my new lab. And while it has been a struggle at times, and I’ve gotten a lot of new grey hairs along the way, it is worth it, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.