キャリアニュース2019年7月11～17日

The human resources representatives were amazed when I requested parental leave. I was one of the first male postdocs to ask in the 100-year history of the institution, they told me. The response didn't surprise me. Here in Japan, where roughly 85% of academic scientists are men and most have stay-at-home spouses, it's rare for fathers to take leave from work after a baby is born. But the real surprise came later, as I learned how hard it was to secure the leave—in spite of careful planning and my supervisor's support. </br>![][1]</img> ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “I wanted to buck Japan's cultural norms and take paternity leave.” I wanted to buck Japan's cultural norms and take paternity leave because I felt strongly that I needed to support my wife, who is also an early-career scientist. She works as a postdoc at a different institution and had arranged 3 months of unpaid maternity leave. Caring for a newborn is a lot of work, and I didn't want her to shoulder all the ph