Soledad Leonardi
BIO
Researcher, parasitologist, feminist, mom-of-one.
Twitter: @soleleonardi
Soledad Leonardi
“I believe it is important to raise girls who grow up confident and can be whoever they want to be, even if they want to be scientific moms.”
I was a postdoc when I decided to become a mom. I had just applied for a tenure position as a researcher. It was a good moment in my scientific career, since I had enough qualifications to obtain the job. My application took a long time and by the time I was notified that I had obtained it, my daughter was 2 months old.
The first challenging experience combining research with motherhood was when I traveled to a conference I had been invited to. It was a 1000 km road trip with a 4-month-old baby whose teeth had just begun to come out. She did not stop crying the first 2 days of the trip. I had to leave some sessions because she only calmed down with me. It was very stressful, because I felt my colleagues’ disapproval for not being involved enough.
It is very demanding to combine motherhood with research, even more so when you try to keep up with male colleagues. Many times we are unaware and we think that it is simply what we have to do. We do not give ourselves the time we deserve, because the scientific system does not allow it either.
In Argentina, we have a 3-month maternity leave; it was not enough time. I struggled going back to fieldwork for example, because it involved planning a whole day away from my house.
Recently, I realized how much the scientific system alienates us. During a meeting on gender issues and scientific research, a colleague commented that she had never made so many mistakes than when her children were babies. At that moment, I understood why I had made some mistakes myself, including the incorrect determination of a louse species 2 years before. Until that point, I was oblivious that the pressure of fulfilling as a researcher and as a mom led to me making mistakes in both roles.
My next challenge is doing a 3-month scholarship in France next year. I decided to think about the role model I want to be for my daughter. I want her to know that I am a researcher who is very proud of her work. I want her to learn that I have a job that makes me happy but sometimes takes me away. I want her to see that she can choose what she wants to do with her life and that being a mother is not a restriction.
I believe it is important to raise girls who grow up confident and can be whoever they want to be, even if they want to be scientific moms.
Even being a single mom, I am very lucky to have a great net of assistance and emotional support: the dad of my daughter, her grandmothers, grandfather, and a lot of friends. It would be impossible for me to continue this journey without them. And, of course, a lot of great female scientists who marked the way to younger generations. After some years on this journey, I am starting to be aware of how many times I suffered situations of misogynist violence and how it affected me. My commitment is to draw attention to discriminatory situations in science and to promote a more equal and inclusive system.