Barriers to Gender Equality in Career Advancement and Leadership

Abstract

Life as a researcher includes a large amount of competition and a heavy workload. Professor's tasks comprise, besides their own research, to lead your research team, to have the responsibility for higher education, expertise in diverse contexts, review of scientific articles, to seek financial support, to work with national and international committees, to serve in administrative posts at the university and in international associations, to write articles, books and book chapters, to attend meetings and conferences, and to address the many other tasks that may arise throughout one's career. This makes one dependent on skillful co-workers, which should not be taken for granted. Given the constant flow of incoming requests, one has to think and choose before agreeing to commit to a task at hand, in order to not set aside your own research. This demands a high capability to prioritize. The choice of a life partner who can share both professional and private interests, a partner who understands, encourages and supports, while at the same time gives the necessary critical feedback, is a treasure. Freud said “love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness”, but work must be pleasurable thus try to combine work, love, and play.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.