Today in Italy is Mother Day. I have never celebrated since in Norway it is in another day. My reflection about Mother Day is that women (and me first or may be should I see me last) have a lot to achieve. Yesterday Pisa celebrated the first woman professor in Science at Scuola Normale Superiore after 208 years. As many of you know I have been working a lot to promote computer science and research among young ladies.

However,  the road is still long. It is not so difficult to study computer science or to have a career. What is difficult is to be a mother, or just a human being, without being accused of being the cause of all problems arising around you. The son of Gro Harlem Brundtland took suicide. Is it Gro’s fault as a working mother? I really believe not. I must admit it took a lot of time and effort and help of fantastic women I have as friends to come to this conclusion. The daughter of a slim woman gets anorexia. Other women judge it, it must be the falut of the mother? No, can it be genetic? Can it be the environment? The children of women scientists are doomed to do very well in school, otherwise the fault has to be found in the pressure generated by parents and expecially the working the mother.

Not least, I was telling to a friend who is a feminist and left wind about one of my friends being homosexual, and she asked “how is his mother?”.

STOP! Stop blaming mothers. We need a lot of courage to be mothers and love our children and our self. Please do not judge us.

happy mother day