Anyone else find it weird how articles often tend to add the parental status of the subject in the title?
I guess it’s bait for people who like to judge. The idea could be: it’s not responsible to quit science for this and being a mother makes irresponsible choices even worse. That’s not my point of view, but I know people whose life seems to be so empty that they feel a constant need to look down on others and the “mother” information gives them at least 5 more minutes of talking shit about how this is a terrible decision.
I see it the other way around. Older people eat up clickbait news, and older people tend to be parents, so identifying the woman as a mother makes them go “she’s someone like me” while identifying her as a scientist is less likely to resonate. It helps some people imagine themselves in her shoes.
It’s been this way since the inception of the news paper. To sell papers they needed to get people invested in the subjects of the paper. That included giving information about the subject of the articles that other people might relate to. If you’re a mother you’re more likely to be inspired by a mom of 3 who went for a degree in science and ended up becoming a “Trebuchet Master”.
I guess being a mother is considered an important life achievement, while being a father is not.
