Increasing support for parents in science means making conferences more child-friendly.

Guest post by Elisabeth Marnik and Julie Claycomb, members of the GSA Conference Childcare Committee.

The scientific community works on the cutting edge. We implement new techniques and methods as soon as we can with the understanding that—though there may be challenges along the way—the end result is worth it. We hope that this mindset will also hold true with regard to scientists implementing important changes in relation to parenthood and attendance at scientific meetings. In a 2018 PNAS article, Rebecca Calisi and a Working Group of Mothers in Science outlined the “childcare–conference conundrum”:

“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.” 

The article suggests changes that need to happen within the scientific community to help alleviate this unfair “baby penalty.” Based on the recommendations from Calisi et al. and the results of our survey earlier this year, the GSA Conference Childcare Committee is working to implement new policies and offer new resources for TAGC 2020. As is true of any new change, there will likely be some bumps in the road, but expanding our support for parents in science is an important step on the path to making things more equal. Ultimately, lowering barriers to participation will contribute to a more diverse community and benefit scientific progress overall as smart minds—belonging to those who happen to be parents—are encouraged to fully engage and remain in their field. 

The following resources will be available at TAGC 2020:

1. On-site childcare (at a cost)
2. Nursing/pumping rooms
3. Grants to help offset the costs of childcare associated with attending the meeting (applications due December 5!)
4. Reserved seating at the back of large meeting rooms to allow parents easy access in and out of sessions
5. Badges to allow additional caregivers access to meeting spaces for drop-off/pick-up

These are important steps in making conference attendance more inclusive, but a big part of the equation is a needed shift in conference culture that tells parents, “You’re wanted and welcome here!” That’s why we’re saying, loud and clear, that infants and children are welcome at TAGC 2020 and allowed in plenary and poster sessions. To make this work, we need parents and non–parents to come together and adapt. The shift might not be easy at first, but as highlighted in Calisi et al.: “Minor interruptions are a small price to pay for this step toward inclusion, which benefits mothers [parents] in science and, by extension, the academic enterprise.” In hopes of making this a better experience for all involved, we offer the following suggestions and tips to attendees bringing children and those who aren’t:

For those bringing children:

• Bring along another caregiver to help or utilize on-site childcare options when possible.
• Take advantage of childcare grants to help provide for childcare at home or at the meeting.
• Network with other parent scientists through the Parents in Science Slack and the Parents in Science Meetup at TAGC 2020.
• Coordinate with other parents to arrange playdates and meetups during the conference. Look for others that would be willing to work together on childcare arrangements.
• Ask a colleague for their session notes if you miss part of a session due to your child’s needs.
• Bring snacks, coloring books, puzzles, and other quiet activities to help entertain children during sessions.
• Remove disruptive or fussy children from session rooms until they are settled down. Many session rooms will have a remote viewing option so that you don’t have to miss the science if you need to exit with a fussy child. 
• Keep an eye on safety. Children 12 and under must be accompanied at all times in conference spaces, and running, performing gymnastics, and other physical exertions are not permitted in any conference areas. Note that children are not allowed in the exhibit/poster hall during set-up or break-down times.
• Be patient with yourself and your child. There may be some challenges to navigating TAGC 2020 with your child, but you are taking an important step in doing so!

For those attending without children:

• Leave the reserved rows at the back of plenary sessions free for those with children so they can easily exit the room when needed.
• Avoid stirring up a child who may be misbehaving.
• Be respectful of nursing mothers/infants.
• Do not harass a parent about their child’s presence or behavior in a session. 
• Practice empathy. No parent wants to disrupt a session with an unruly child, and every parent is acutely aware of their child’s behavior in situations like this. 
• Be an ally. Recognize that parents bringing children to the conference may be outside of their comfort zone, too, but that to change our culture, we all need to work together.

We recognize that change like this might feel uncomfortable to some; however, we’re committed to doing what we can to address this particular contribution to the “leaky pipeline” of women in science. This isn’t a challenge that is unique to women; parents and caregivers of all genders can face hardships balancing a career in the sciences and parenthood. But it’s true that much of the career penalty that can come from having children is borne by mothers. There is a long-standing perception that science and motherhood are not compatible; it’s up to us to change that perception by providing better support for all parents in science.

It is our job as a community to ensure that talented scientists can succeed in their careers regardless of their decision to be parents. We hope you’ll join us in working to make TAGC 2020 inclusive to all attendees.

FURTHER READING

Problems in the Pipeline: Gender, Marriage, and Fertility in the Ivory Tower
Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Mary Ann Mason, and Marc Goulden
The Journal of Higher Education. 2008. 79(4): 388-405. doi: 10.1080/00221546.2008.11772108

Keeping Women in the Science Pipeline
Marc Goulden, Mary Ann Mason, and Karie Frasch
The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 2011. 638(1): 141-162. doi: 10.1177/0002716211416925

Do Babies Matter?: Gender and Family in the Ivory Tower
Mary Ann Mason, Nicholas H. Wolfinger, and Marc Goulden

About the authors:

Elisabeth Marnik

Elisabeth Marnik is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Updike Lab at The MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, ME, mom to a 7-month-old boy, and a member of the GSA Conference Childcare Committee.

Julie Claycomb

Julie Claycomb is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, mom of a 2 and a half-year-old boy, and a member of the GSA’s Conference Childcare Committee.

The Genetics Society of America is committed to increasing support for parents and caregivers who attend our conferences. As the Conference Childcare Committee, we’re asking for input from parents and caregivers in the community so that we can best meet your needs.

This short survey should take less than ten minutes of your time, and your feedback will help make GSA Conferences more parent-friendly! The survey will remain open until August 2.

The survey is now closed.

The Conference Childcare Committee is charged with assessing the current offerings for family support and childcare available at GSA Conferences and making recommendations for ways that GSA Conferences can better serve primary caregivers and make our meetings more equitable.

For more information on our efforts in this area, see our previous blog posts:

Oh, Baby, the Conferences You’ll Go by Madhumala K. Sadanandappa

How can we make scientific conferences better for parents? by Tânia Reis

Questions or comments? Contact Tânia Reis, committee chair, or Sarah Bay, GSA staff liaison.

Guest post by Tânia Reis, Chair of GSA’s Conference Childcare Committee, on barriers to conference participation and how we can address them.

I’m a Scientist. I’m a Mom. I couldn’t pick one over the other; half of me would be missing. I am lucky I have never had to choose. Yet, there were and are times that these two roles seemed incompatible.

But why should it be this way? Despite the challenges, being a scientist has made me a better mom, and being a mom has made me a better scientist. Why the barriers? Why the lack of support? These are questions many of us have when we are “in the trenches.” And being in the trenches has made me think a lot about the many little things that could easily be changed to make a huge difference to the mom and dad scientists.

My husband is a dad. And a scientist, a dad scientist, and a scientist dad. His “barriers” have been very different from mine. At our institutions, we are very used to juggling our kids and our science, planning who can drop everything for the sick kid that day, who goes on the field trip, who has a meeting or an assay that day. For the most part, we handle it, not as gracefully as we imagined before parenting, but in a way that balls don’t get dropped (at least not the major ones…a minor ball may bounce away now and then, and we’re learning to live with it).

Our kids are veterans at scientific meetings. Both have breastfed, melted down, and played hide-and-seek in the hallways of the different hotels and universities of GSA conferences. (When you next see me, ask me about that time that we ended up in the San Diego Children’s ER just as the fly meeting started! The joys!!). We have had institutional retreats where we both present and the kids come along. They know the drill. They even enjoy listening to talks from time to time.

Yet, one of our biggest challenges was TAGC 2016: we always attend the GSA fly (me) and yeast (him) meetings, and we were excited to attend this one, too. We were actually one of the 28 parent attendees to be awarded a GSA childcare grant. We used ours to fly our three and seven-year old kids with us to the meeting; without nearby family who could drop everything, we had no choice. I had a workshop to host and a poster to present, some lunches to sit in; husband had a talk to give. We juggled it all again, as we know so well how to do. But, this time around we both thought that we missed too much. We took too little out of this meeting, and we wanted to take so much more. With TAGC 2020 just around the corner, we want to ask: how could the experience of parents with young children be different?

Our experience and variations are far from unique. Scientists everywhere end up missing meetings because of lack of childcare support. And it’s not just them missing out— the whole community misses out when parents can’t fully participate.

Because GSA wants to help address this problem, it has formed a Conference Childcare Committee. I think my years of “nagging” for something to improve has earned me the committee Chair position. Like me, many others reached out.

This is who we are, and we are pumped!

• Julie Claycomb, Associate Professor, University of Toronto
• Sean Curran, Associate Professor, University of Southern California
• Rhea Datta, Assistant Professor, Hamilton College
• Madhumala Sadanandappa, Postdoc, Dartmouth College
• Elisabeth Marnik, Postdoc, MDI Biological Laboratory
• Thomas Merritt, Professor, Laurentian University
• Maureen Peters, Associate Professor, Oberlin College
• Maria D. Vibranovski, Assistant Professor, University of São Paulo
• Gillian Stanfield, Associate Professor, University of Utah

As you can see, the Drosophila and C. elegans communities are well represented. Because every GSA meeting looks and operates differently, we’d love to have members of other communities, too. Are you also interested in making conferences more inclusive, and don’t see your community represented? Send us an email!

After our first couple of meetings, it was obvious that, like me, many others have been thinking over the years “How can we make this better for parents and caregivers? Accessible for everyone? So everyone can contribute their science to the community?”

We have so many ideas.

We are building a growing list of “first steps” (relatively easy-to-implement ideas, some of which build on existing GSA initiatives) and “big goals” (harder, either practically or financially, to implement) for parents and caregivers. We are also working on messaging, and we’re researching opportunities for funding, from grants to requesting supplements from vendors. If you know of an organization looking to fund meaningful projects for improving science, let us know!

Here are some ideas from the (ever-growing) list:

First steps:

• Data collection at registration: better understand how many attendees are bringing children, how many need nursing facilities, etc; including an option for connecting with other parents attending.
• Better informing parents: adding inclusive messaging to the website and providing more detailed information on resources available. Making sure parents know that they and their children are welcome.
• Family Room at the conference: Provide a Family Room that includes games for kids and session broadcasts for parents.
• Connecting parents at GSA conferences: Set up a Slack channel or other forum for parents and caregivers to connect at the meeting.
• Nursing Room standards: Ensure Nursing Room is easily accessible and equipped with a fridge, sink, microwave, and private pumping areas.
• Exhibitor support: Offer exhibitors the opportunity to donate to the childcare funds and to equip the Family Room.
• Conference session: Develop a work/family life session or workshop for current and future parents or caregivers.
• Kids Session: Fun outreach opportunity for kids to present their parents’ work or other passion area in science.

Big goals:

• Provide onsite childcare: Although costs make this a major challenge, particularly for GSA’s smaller community meetings, it would be a game changer for parent attendees.
• Expanding the Childcare Grants: These need-based grants can be given to provide care either at the meeting or at home; the more funding we can find, the more we can offer. We would like to support more people and provide more support per grantee.

We are working with the GSA Board of Directors on setting priorities and finding funding to see as much as possible in effect for TAGC 2020.

We have so far only looked at things we personally missed and guessed at those things we think others may be missing. Because we’re sure others have additional ideas (or support for existing ones), we’d like to ask the community what they think. What would help you and your family? What do you have to add?

Contact me at tania.reis@cuanschutz.edu.

About the author: 

Tânia Reis

Tânia Reis is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, mom of a 9-year old boy and a 5-year old girl, and chair of GSA’s Conference Childcare Committee.

A member of GSA’s Conference Childcare Committee presents an overview of childcare resources available at scientific conferences.

Guest post by Madhumala K. Sadanandappa.

Recently, I received an email from the Genetics Society of America (GSA) regarding my interest in being a part of the Conference Childcare Committee that aims to tackle the childcare-conference conundrum as outlined in Calisi et al., 2018. The committee has been tasked with exploring better ways to accommodate primary caregivers attending GSA conferences. Based on my personal experiences at scientific meetings, this is a much-needed initiative to address the challenges faced by both parent-researchers and the conferences.  

Before choosing my postdoctoral research, I planned to attend a well-known, reputable, biennial conference in my field. Besides offering an excellent platform to present my work, the conference offered a timely opportunity to survey my study area and weigh my future course of research. However, the meeting failed to accommodate my parental needs, including practical and monetary considerations for breastfeeding and childcare. As an early career researcher, it was not feasible for me to afford additional travel expenses. So, after weighing my options, in addition to planning for a solo trip, I forced myself to wean my toddler early. This decision left me with a heavy heart because I really enjoyed my time nursing my daughter and also, as a researcher, I admired the beauty of nature that was unfolding around me. Therefore, I have enthusiastically agreed to serve the GSA conference childcare committee as a parent postdoc researcher.

Going forward, normalizing parenthood at conferences will empower parent-scientists (especially early career researchers) to thrive in science. To achieve this goal, many scientific societies are working to reduce the ‘baby penalty’ on parent-researchers. With the purpose of serving as a resource for parents and parents-to-be, here I list some of the childcare services that are currently provided by various conferences/societies to their attendees, including dependent/carer grants. In addition, I hope that the compiled data in this article may offer some ideas to conference organizers to accommodate parent-scientists at their meetings.

• American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP): Travel award to ACNP members includes childcare stipend of $80/day/child.
• American Ornithology Society (AOS): In addition to travel awards participants can also apply for a caregiver grant to the AOS annual meeting. On-site childcare facility at the conference hotels and lactation room available at the main meeting venue.
• Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour (ASAB): Award childcare grants of up to £500 to members attending ASAB conferences or workshops.
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB): Childcare grant up to $1000/family is available to members presenting at the ASBMB annual meeting.
• American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB): Offers childcare grant to ASCB members attending the ASCB/EMBO meeting.
• Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI): Women’s Initiative offers up to AUD 1000 travel award for women members to attend the ASI annual meeting.
• British Neuroscience Association (BNA): BNA-Brain Carer grants offer up to £300 to cover childcare expenses.
• British Society for Cell Biology (BSCB): Provide £250 childcare support to applicants presenting at the meeting.
• Ecological Society of Australia (ESA): In addition to registration discount for families where both parents are presenting the meeting, ESA offers Conference Childcare Travel Grants up to $250 per family.
• Elsevier Family Support Awards: Provides up to $500 per award to early-career researchers attending Cell Symposia.
• Entomological Society of America (ESA): Offers up to $400 per family.
• European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) childcare grants: From January 2019, the organizers of EMBO funded courses and workshop are provided up to €1000 to offset childcare costs incurred by the attendees.
• European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB): Conference Attendance Aid Grant (from €250 to €500) supports ESEB members to the meeting.
• Federation for European Neuroscience Society (FENS): Offers childcare grants up to €400 to attend the FENS Forum meeting.
• Genetics Society of America (GSA): Awards childcare grants to members attending The Allied Genetics Conference.
• Microbiology Society: Eligible members receive £245 for annual conferences and £300 for focused meetings organized by the society.
• National Postdoc Association (NPA): Limiting to one per institution, NPA awards childcare support ($500) in addition to travel award ($500) to postdoctoral attending the annual meeting.
• Open Bioinformatics Foundation Travel Fellowships (OBF): The travel fellowship ($1000) can be used towards childcare costs.
• Society for applied microbiology (SfAM): Care support grant offers £300 for dependent care.
• Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE): On-site daycare facility and also, Carer Travel Awards up to $2000 are available to SMBE members.
• Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR): Offers family care grant up to $400 per family to members attending the meeting.  
• The Capstone Editing Carer’s travel grant: Funds up to A$3,000 per year to academic women in Australia and New Zealand.
• The Genetics Society: Carer’s award (up to £60/day) supports members and selected speakers to attend the society organized meetings and events.
• The Physiological Society: Limited number of carers’ fund up to £500 available for attending any meeting or workshop organized by the society.
• Wellcome Genome Campus Advanced Courses and Scientific Conferences offers carer grants.

Below are the societies that offer family-friendly facilities, such as on-site/off-site daycare services for infants and children, a family room and/or nursing room at the conference area: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Fisheries Society (AFS), American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), British Ecological Society (BES), Ecological Society of America (ESA), European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) conferences and symposia, Evolution meetings, International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), GSA conferences, International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), Japan Neuroscience Society (JNS), Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists, Society of Experimental Biology (SEB), Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) and Society for Neuroscience (SFN).

Don’t forget to investigate support from your host institution. Dependent care travel grants for faculty members have been established at Harvard University, Stanford University, UC Irvine, Princeton University, Cornell University, The University of Chicago, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, UCLA, University of Glasgow, and several other institutions. In the United States, childcare professional development awards are offered to postdoctoral researchers by UC San Diego,  University of Michigan, Yale University, West Virginia University, Northwestern University and the University of Colorado Denver.

Parent scientists: don’t forget that conferences can help not only your professional development but also your family. Because your participation matters!

About the author:

Madhumala K. Sadanandappa is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH. She is also a member of the GSA’s Conference Childcare Committee. She would like to thank Shivaprasad H. Sathyanaryana for his help in researching this article.

The committee will assess current childcare support at GSA meetings and make recommendations for improvement.

Parent scientists know firsthand that many scientific conferences fail to provide adequate support for attendees with children. Indeed, Calisi et al. discussed the “childcare-conference conundrum” in detail earlier this year, outlining the barriers parents face and making suggestions for how conferences can better support them. The bottom line is this: when parents—and disproportionately, mothers—are unable to attend scientific conferences because the conferences don’t adequately support them, they can face career penalties. These individual setbacks reverberate throughout the larger scientific enterprise, and it’s up to us as conference hosts to help tackle the problem.

GSA Conferences are an integral part of our mission to foster an international community of geneticists. It’s important to us that we work hard to make our conferences equitable, welcoming spaces for all scientists to participate in the sharing of discovery and the advancement of their fields. We believe that knocking down as many barriers to participation as we can helps us build the strongest scientific community. To this end, we are forming a committee to gauge how well our conferences currently support parent scientists and other primary caregivers and, most importantly, to explore and recommend new initiatives for the future.

We want to make sure that we provide support for a wide range of parental needs, including practical and monetary considerations for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and childcare. We also want the culture of our conferences to explicitly convey our support for parent scientists so that when you attend a GSA Conference, you know we’ve got your back.

If you’d like to be a part of helping us achieve these goals, please volunteer for the committee and send us your ideas and input. We expect to hold our first committee meeting in November 2018, with a tentative goal of making initial recommendations during Spring 2019.

(The volunteer period is now closed. Thanks to all those who expressed interest in being a part of this new initiative.)