The Backbreaking Work of Scientist-Homemakers Peter Aldhous Science. German society is not structured to accommodate working women very well. A pervasive message from the media is that children in day care will suffer. As a result, day care is not widely available even for those with generous salaries.
Stores are open only during the working day, making it nearly impossible for working women to shop.
Most schools have only morning hours, again restricting the flexibility of families' schedules where both parents work. Furthermore, as the East German academic system is restructured, newcomers to the fields of science and engineering are often male West Germans, and women are fighting harder to keep their jobs in the face of down-sizing. The Double Bind Aldhous writes that among more than twenty female researchers interviewed for this article, most agreed that the chief problem for women in science in Germany is the societal pressure on mothers to devote their time to caring for the children. One manifestation of the intense pressure that children place on a woman's career is reflected in the experience of a university professor who was advising biology graduate students. Some of these students were considering having abortions because of the five-year time limitation for their graduate study.