What are the challenges to being a female scientist?
Heidi Hammel: I would say the biggest challenge I had as a woman in science, is be a mom. It’s really hard. It’s very hard work having children, and I tell kids this all the time. They say what’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done, because I’ve done so many space missions in Hubble and taught these big projects. I’m like, oh, the hardest thing is being a mom. It’s like 24/7. You can’t stop it, and it’s always there. And as a scientist, it’s hard because my particular field of science, and most fields of science, require quite a bit of dedication, whether it’s laboratory work, or in my case telescopic work, where I need to go places and do things. Having high quality daycare is by far the most important thing you can do when your kids are little. When I relocated, I spent more time looking for daycare than I did looking for a house. It was much more important to have good daycare, and I was fortunate to find high quality daycare where I just totally trusted it, and my kids were great. T
