How long after that was penicillin discovered?
Gertrude Elion: About four or five years. It’s done so much to save so many lives. It sounds like your heart was broken. Gertrude Elion: It really was. It was one of these ideal things, which you think will never happen again. And it usually doesn’t. Some people are inclined to settle for something less, and I wasn’t. These days, the big question is how to balance family and career. It’s a difficult juggling act, and many people are bewildered about it. How do you view that? Gertrude Elion: In my generation, it really wasn’t feasible to have both. Partly because people wouldn’t hire you if you were married. If you had a child, that was the end of it, they didn’t let you come back. That’s all changed, and I think it is possible for women to have both, but I do think it’s difficult. I think some of them underestimate the difficulty. Something has to give part of the time, and you can’t expect to have everything. If people realize that, they can do it. I’ve had women who have children wor
