Many years ago I tried for a position at my current university (lectureship), just a few weeks after giving birth. I din’t get the job, and requested feedback. The response: “The panel is aware that you have just had a baby. Children are important! You should have a five year plan for coming back to […]

I am now working in a foreign country at a prestigious university, but I used to be an FWO postdoc at a Flemish institution, in a large faculty that is almost completely male (+90%). This institution does not grant FWO prolongations, but it does have a BOFZAP tenure track system. While a postdoc, faculty members […]

I was doing my postdoc abroad, and became pregnant for the second time. I met a former postdoc of that lab, and she said “ah, I heard you’re going to leave science?”. I was surprised because I never told anyone that was my plan, so I asked where she got that idea. It turned out […]