The percentage of scientist mothers with symptoms of depression was almost double that seen among fathers with the same career, according to research presented as a master’s thesis in Biomedical Sciences at the Universidade Federal Fluminense. Among the mothers interviewed, 42% showed signs of the disease, compared to 22% of fathers.
Researcher Sarah Rocha Alves believes that this illness is related to the overload of domestic work and care.
“Historically, mothers have assumed a disproportionate responsibility for raising their children, and the research results confirmed what was already expected”, he assesses.
Additional research data reinforces this conclusion, showing, for example, that the proportion of solo mothers with symptoms was around 11 percentage points higher than that of those who share childrearing. The difference was similar between mothers without a support network and those who had some help. Furthermore, almost 60% of mothers of children with disabilities were highly likely to have depression, as were more than 54% of black mothers.
According to Sarah, respondents answered a questionnaire called PHQ-9, widely used to diagnose symptoms of depression. The research was carried out in March and June 2022, a period in which the Covid-19 pandemic cooled down in Brazil.
“We were already in the partial return of activities, but these women were still overworked, balancing domestic work, childcare and academic activities, which ended up being more complicated for them. But the pandemic only exacerbated what was already expected”, argues the researcher.
Career
In addition to the consequences for mental health, Sarah believes that this overload also impacts the careers of these researchers. “Women are the majority in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, but as they advance, they have a limitation because they do not have support policies to be accepted and achieve higher positions.”
A survey by the Parent in Science movement estimates that women experience a drop in productivity that can last up to 6 years after the birth of their children, which does not happen to men who become fathers. This causes an effect known as the “glass ceiling”, which describes the greater difficulty women have in moving up in their careers.
Therefore, the researcher defends changes in academic culture and cites as good examples an initiative by the Fluminense Federal University itself, which gives credits to people with children in its academic selections, and the notices from the Rio de Janeiro Research Support Foundation exclusively for mother scientists. She also considers an advance the law sanctioned in July by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that extends the deadline for completing higher education for people who have children.
