Having children and integrating them into one's professional life provides a vivid illustration of how women's life timelines differ from that of their male colleagues, and of the conflicts that can result. I choose this topic not because it is a given that all women will choose to have children, or can have children. Many women in all walks of life, including mathematics, have rich and rewarding lives without children.
Women hear three strong, conflicting messages.
They are told that, biologically, the ideal time to have children is as early as possible. Professionally, the ideal time is to wait until after tenure. Many women mathematicians did indeed have children early in their lives and felt that was a good decision. For example, two mathematicians, Lenore Blum and Fan Chung, each had a child in their later years of graduate school. And like many women at this time, they played down having a child for fear of not being taken seriously in their professional lives.