Opinion: How to tackle the childcare–conference conundrum

Conferences are vital forums for academic researchers. At these meetings, scientists communicate new discoveries, form research collaborations, make contacts with funding agencies, and attract new members to our labs and programs. Even with new technological advances that allow remote communication, resource sharing, and networking, face-to-face interactions are a crucial component for one’s career advancement and ongoing education. Early-stage researchers, who benefit significantly from these events, face some notable barriers to attendance. One major challenge is what we call the childcare–conference conundrum: Parent–researchers face a conundrum as they struggle to attend key conferences and further their careers while finding care for the children. Conferences face a conundrum as they assess how to better accommodate mothers and families. With childcare accommodations seemingly elusive, many parents make a calculated decision to forego conference attendance and suffer the career consequences. Image courtesy of Dave Cutler (artist). The bottom line is this: Primary caretakers of dependent children face inequitable hurdles to fully attending and participating in conference activities because of responsibilities related to pregnancy, breastfeeding, and caretaking. It’s a serious problem because it creates a culture of inequity for parents, with mothers generally experiencing greater disadvantages than fathers because of biological, prejudicial, and often socially driven childcare demands. With solutions seemingly elusive, many women, and occasionally men, make a calculated decision to forego conference attendance and suffer the career consequences. Research reveals that this “baby penalty” (1) negatively affects women’s, but not men’s, career mobility, with even larger penalties for women of color. We and others (2) argue that collective and structural ideas for addressing the childcare–conference conundrum—going beyond measures that some conferences have taken thus far—could lead to more impactful, efficient, and equitable solutions that help women with children thrive in science. There are clear ethical and social-justice concerns when certain groups are excluded … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: rmcalisi{at}ucdavis.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1