In the contemporary scholarly discourse, the under-representation of women in science is often explained by the phenomenon of women "in the pipeline". The pipeline carries a flow from one stage to another, and the flow of women diminishes between the stages. Based on the literature and qualitative studies, it can be inferred that one of the main causes of leaking in the pipeline is the difficulty in reconciling professional and family life by female scientists. Scientific work that requires mobility and competition forces numerous women to abandon their career or take a career break for the period of assuming different family roles. The results of a number of studies demonstrate that there are some differences between Polish women and their peers from other countries in achieving the work-family connection. It appears that after fulfilling a set of necessary conditions, the reconciliation of professional and family life is sometimes possible.