Spelke left MIT to join Harvard’s psychology department just last month, saying that Harvard offered unique opportunities including working with former New York University psychologist Susan Carey who also joined the faculty this summer as a psychology professor.

Time editors put a “particularly negative” slant on Spelke’s experiences as a female scientist, she said in an interview from Paris this week. The magazine quotes her as saying, “There were times I felt I was cheating my science, my students and my children.”

While she said that she has experienced some problems as a woman in science, the vast majority of her experiences have been positive. The presence of women in senior positions at Cornell, where she went to graduate school, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she began her academic career “made a big difference,” she said.

“There was a sensitivity among the senior women about issues unique to women scientists, and I personally benefited from that understanding,” Spelke said.

Before she came, Spelke noticed the paucity of female tenured professors at Harvard and while she thinks current tenure trends are an improvement, the lack of women is still a “problem.”

Nonetheless, Spelke is excited about her future here.

“I get paid for what I love to do most. I get to determine when and where I work, and this flexibility lets me combine parenting and family life with being a scientist,” she said.