Juliana Hipolito
BIO
Postdoctoral researcher in Ecology at National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), Brazil.
Instagram: @ajuhipolito
Juliana Hipolito
“I’m still fighting to stay in science despite the difficulties and maternity/gender gaps that exist.”
It seems a bit cliché but I have loved science ever since I was a child, so when I turned 17 I decided to pursue a bachelor's degree in Biology. In my first year of graduate school, I worked in a laboratory as a trainee mostly cutting leaves for studies in plant anatomy. A few months later I received an invitation to study bees and pollination which turned into the main theme of my Master's and PhD studies.
At the final stage of my PhD, I was living in another country to finish my studies, and I got pregnant. I defended my thesis while 7 months pregnant, and traveled to another city where I would live and would have my baby.
At this time I was approved for a postdoctoral scholarship in the same country that I performed part of my studies in, but I knew that I would have to face moving again from Brazil - only this time with a newborn baby. Fortunately, another opportunity appeared in Brazil and I decided to stay for a while.
My son was born and soon had to return to the hospital, staying in the hospital for almost 20 days. I probably could have asked to delay the beginning of my postdoctoral scholarship, but I was very afraid that it would mean a refusal and decided to proceed.
It was not easy to start a new job with a newborn but my boss was super understanding in many ways even though she was not a mother. The following year I decided to accept another opportunity and leave the country again with my son. We lived alone for two years while his father came to visit us around his work schedule. After that, we decided that life away from the family was quite difficult and we returned to Brazil.
Today I teach and supervise postgraduate students and work with pollinators and landscape ecology. I am still without a permanent position as a researcher but I’m still fighting to stay in science despite all the difficulties and maternity/gender gaps that exist.