This article was supported by The Elsevier Foundation.

Irene Offei Owusu has often grappled with the hard choice between family and career — occasionally being forced to sacrifice one for the other.

“One challenge I have encountered is work-family balance,” says the epidemiology postdoctoral research fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana.

“It is difficult having to work in the field of science effectively and taking care of family,” Owusu tells SciDev.Net.

“Acknowledging and taking these barriers into account is a step forward, but also recognising the importance of supporting the research ecosystem as a whole and inherent power imbalances is a step forward in addressing these inequalities,”

Rebecca Grais, executive director of the Pasteur Network

Yet Owusu’s predicament is just a glimpse of the challenges women face in the uneven health research landscape.

‘Prestigious’ author rights go to men in health – studies