Science and private life have co-evolved. This fact, established through much historical research, is reflected in the gendered power structure of academic research. In Sweden, where female participation in the labour market has long been unusually high, women currently constitute about half of the PhD candidates at universities and a little over 20 per cent of the professoriate.1 Welfare provisions such as tax-funded childcare has made it easier, from the 1970s at least, for women to pursue academic careers, but the lingering of a traditional division of labour within the family has led to women taking on a larger share of family responsibilities than men, often solving this equation by working part-time.2 This has had detrimental career effects, contributing to the discrepancy between the entry and top-level representation of women in the Swedish academy.3 Similarly, the demands of mobility and the emphasis on competitiveness put strains on two-career families.4