Women in Science

Photo: Helena Brunnerová

It was essential for me to have children in early adulthood, to raise them well and to have time for them as long as they need it. To be available to my children in the case of illness and not to rely on strangers or grandparents to care for them, even if their occasional help was very kind. Myself, my husband and his father wanted to do it ourselves. We had adapted our lives to the city centre, where everything was close, including the children’s school and clubs and our work. When they called me from school that my son was not well, I threw away the hoe or the mouse and was there in ten minutes. From the second grade onwards, the children managed to walk everywhere alone. A professional career has never come first for me.

I am glad that my husband (Editor’s note: Prof. RNDr. Milan Chytrý, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University) has made a great career and put everything into it. He’s very good at it. I don’t mind looking after the rest of the family. I’m no less important just because I shop, cook, clean, wash, iron, clean shoes, take care of the garden, sort the rubbish, pick herbs, look out for the relative’s birthdays and keep in touch with the whole family, take the car for its service or call in the handyman. I am practical, I like a range of activities and quick results from work. I get no salary for it and I spend money on it, mainly earned by my husband. I value myself the most for how great our sons are today. Everywhere else we are all (men and women) replaceable, but not for our children.

The division of roles between men and women is, in my opinion, a natural thing to some extent, and I cannot imagine what could change that. While a man is making his most important career moves during the first 15 years of his children’s lives, a woman takes care of the children. A man shows his children that it is normal to work, to be responsible, make money and support the family.

After those 15 years, a woman can never catch up with what she missed in her profession. However, she can still work at her profession while caring for children over 3−4 years of age, for up to eight hours a day. That’s not enough. For example, a man works on his career and earn money 10 to 12 hours a day for years without interruption. At the age of 15, children still need their mother very much…just to come home at four in the afternoon, do something around the house and not bother them, make sure the fridge is full, just so that they know she is still looking out for them, that their mum will always be there for them. A mother must know everything she needs to know about her children, inform the father, and then be able to kick them out of the house at the age of twenty.

Once children can walk the streets alone and ride the tram, a woman can start working to improve her position at work. Previously, for a female university educated student, this was around the age of 35-40. leaving 25-30 years before retirement. It’s still a long time to have good times working in the field. And we can be much more human and empathetic to people than men, we can be good team members, we can be kind and cheerful, reliable, accurate, punctual and sensitive − simply priceless. We can wear skirts, jewellery, makeup, perfume, paint long nails and brush our hair. So, I recommend to female students what I was told at home: to get married in college so that you don’t stay a spinster, to have children after high school out of great love, live in a rented apartment with old furniture and not to wait for a house, a car and a trip around the world first. When the children are older, the trips are great.

Mgr. Magdaléna Chytrá
Head of the Botanical Garden Department, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University
Botanical Garden

You can read the whole interview here.