Combining work and family life, and the challenges and solutions connected to it is a topical and globally significant subject. In the article I examine how the under 40-year-old female doctoral students with a family succeed in combining their roles as a mother and a doctoral student in their own everyday lives. A number of large and simultaneous challenges condense in the everyday life of an under 40-year-old female doctoral student with a family. In the examination I concentrate on the

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... ay challenges of the female doctoral student, on the interface of the family and the doctoral studies and on the choices made in everyday life. The qualitative research material consisted of the theme interviews of 12 female doctoral students with a family. The theme interview is suitable for examining a wide and multi-dimensional subject matter. The study is phenomenological with loose hermeneutic and narrative connections. Nowadays the atmosphere of planning is pervasive and an individual is expected to plan their life course precisely. The work career should be carefully planned out, the family established with consideration and the different sectors of the life course combined into a meaningful and active whole. The choices that are made in everyday life spring partly from the evaluations of past events and from the anticipations of the future. On the basis of the study it would seem that the female doctoral student succeeds most in accommodating the family and private life, if she is working as a full time researcher and conducts the doctoral thesis research as her main employment through the regular working hours. Research in addition to work congests other aspects of life and often overshadows it.