The thing is, you have to live a life that’s true to yourself. Being a professor is too much work for someone whose heart isn’t really in it. And trying to suppress who you really are would come back to bite you sooner or later.

But while you’re still in academia, you can talk to the younger women honestly about the obstacles you’ve encountered and the successes you’ve had to help give them a road map to navigate as far as they want to go in that world. I think sharing whatever wisdom you have and doing what you can to steer your mentees towards the research groups or subject areas where they’re most likely to succeed is what you can do.

Seeing someone putting her Ph.D. to work outside of the academic sphere might just inspire another woman to give graduate school a try and discover that her interests lie in the lab after all, too.

And science-aware people are important everywhere. Academia tends to think of academia as the only important place in the world, and that’s where you are right now so that attitude would naturally start to rub off… but it’s not. The rest of the world matters, too, and the rest of the world needs science-aware women, too.

As an undergraduate student, I don’t see the problem with telling them that they should consider a career in academia, and when the question of what you are doing comes up, explain that while you enjoyed teaching/research/whatever it is you’re currently doing it is *not* what you want to do for the rest of your life. You can also emphasize that if being a professor is what they want, they should go for it. Ditto for other career paths.

And don’t feel guilty for not personally fixing the gender gap. You can’t do everything. (well, that’s what my mom tells me. it doesn’t stop me from trying, so you can ignore it too. )