FACULTY HAVE FAMILIES TOO

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FACULTY HAVE FAMILIES TOO
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Why are work/family issues important?

• Almost all faculty members will face some kind of
  family issue during their careers, and the
  growing participation of women in the faculty has
  increased concern about balancing work and
  family.
• Sensitivity to work/family issues can make
  faculty more satisfied and productive.

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Why are work/family issues important?

• Family policies may affect recruitment and
  retention of qualified faculty and may be
  particularly important to female faculty.
• The success of faculty members in balancing
  their academic careers with family
  responsibilities is a matter of more than
  individual happiness it is also a matter of
  addressing structural inequities and attracting
  the most qualified candidates to the academic
  profession.
• John W. Curtis (2004),
• "Balancing work and Family for the Faculty Why
  It's Important"

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What Common Family Issues Do Faculty Face?

• Children
• childbirth and adoption
• finding safe affordable childcare
• Illness
• Care giving
• for aging parents
• for an ill or disabled child, spouse or other
  relative
• Quality of family life
• finding time for family responsibilities
• employment for partners

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Women faculty and work/family policies

• Gender and family issues
• both men and women have family responsibilities
  and/or face family and personal emergencies
• but women have traditionally felt those pressures
  most strongly, particularly in the case of
  childcare eldercare

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Women faculty and work/family policies

• Gender and family issues
• Research suggests that women remain important
  caregivers for aging or ill parents at time when
  the population of the elderly is growing
• Only women give birth

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Women faculty and work/family policies

• "Women who have children soon after receiving
  their PhDs are much less likely to achieve tenure
  than men who have children at the same point in
  their careers.
• Joan C. Williams (2004),
• "Hitting the Maternal Wall"

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Childcare Who is affected?

• New faculty who want families or who already have
  families must balance their responsibilities
  against institutional requirements for tenure.
• "Biological clocks and tenure clocks have the
  unfortunate tendency to tick loudly, clearly, and
  at the same time."
• Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel (2004),
• "Fear Factor How Safe Is It to Make Time for
  Family"

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How are women faculty affected?

• Even tenured faculty can find themselves part of
  the "sandwich" generation responsible for both
  children and aging parents while still trying to
  fulfill institutional expectations. This may have
  implications for post-tenure review.
• Some research suggests that "mommy tracking"
  explains the concentration of female faculty in
  contingent positions and non-doctoral
  institutions.

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Family Formation and Academic Careers

• The tenure probationary period and childrearing
  occur at the same life stage
• Women having a baby prior to 5 years after
  receiving a PhD are less likely than other women
  to achieve tenure. The same is not true for men.
• Mason and Goulden, Do Babies Matter?
• Academe, Nov-Dec 2002

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Family Formation and Academic Careers

• Women who earn tenure are much more likely than
  tenured men not to have children.
• Tenured women in science are more likely than
  other tenured women not to have children.
• Women with children are more likely to consider
  leaving academia.
• Mason and Goulden, Do Babies Matter?
• Academe, Nov-Dec 2002

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Family Formation and Academic Careers

• Faculty women who give birth early in their
  academic careers are more likely to be in the
  academic second tier in part-time or
  non-tenure-track positions or at community
  colleges or non-research institutions.
• Mason and Goulden, Do Babies Matter?
• Academe, Nov-Dec 2002

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There are minimal requirements that all
institutions must meet

• Federal Law
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act
• Requires employers to provide the same disability
  benefits for pregnancy as for other physical
  disabilities
• This usually means 6 weeks of leave for normal
  childbirth
• For more information see Pregnancy and the
  Academy Questions and Answers for Faculty and
  Administrators by Saranna R.Thornton, available
  from the AAUP

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There are minimal requirements that all
institutions must meet

• Federal Law
• FMLA Family and Medical Leave Act
• Requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family
  responsibilities for eligible faculty (those with
  1,250 hours on the job in the previous year) for
  eligible family responsibilities including
  childbirth and adoption or serious illness
• For more information see Pregnancy and the
  Academy Questions and Answers for Faculty and
  Administrators by Donna R. Euben and Saranna
  R.Thornton, available from the AAUP

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There are minimal requirements that all
institutions must meet

• State laws
• May go beyond FMLA
• Recognition of domestic partners
• Requirements for paid leave for childbirth or
  other family related responsibilities
• Eligibility requirements for unpaid leave

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Institutions may also have to meet the following

• Individual university policies
• collective bargaining agreements
• other campus policies
• individual department or school policies

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AAUP Recommendations for Best Practices

• 1974 Statement on Leaves of Absence for
  Child-Bearing, Child-Rearing and Family
  Emergencies was superseded by
• 2001 Statement of Principles on Family
  Responsibilities and Academic Work The full
  text of the 2001 statement is available on the
  AAUP website

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AAUP Recommendations for Best Practices

• Some Ways that Institutions Can Help
• Information
• community resources
• registered daycare and eldercare centers
• Counseling
• family and marriage counseling
• caregiver support groups

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AAUP Recommendations for Best Practices

• Ways that Institutions Can Help (cont.)
• Resources
• on-campus daycare
• eldercare centers
• family resource centers
• Time
• stopping the tenure clock for family-related
  leaves when requested
• schedules that reflect family responsibilities

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AAUP Recommendations for Best Practices

• Ways that Institutions Can Help (cont.)
• Flexibility in scheduling to accommodate
  work/family responsibilities
• Equitable treatment for faculty taking leaves
  (paid or unpaid) for family or personal
  emergencies
• Stopping the tenure clock during the probationary
  period for a maximum of two years
• Paid leave for pregnancy, adoption and physical
  disabilities
• Subsidized child care
• Institutional support for faculty caring for
  relatives, spouses or partners
• Extend benefits to domestic partners

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Whats happening on Your Campus?

• Some questions to consider
• University Policies
• What are they?
• Are they clear and readily available?
• Are they in line with other institutions similar
  to yours?
• Do they meet the needs of your faculty?

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Whats happening on Your Campus

• Some questions to consider
• Practices
• Do deans, department chairs and other
  administrators understand their role in the
  process?
• Do faculty feel comfortable asking for leave or
  other accommodation for family issues?
• What role do department chairs have in
  facilitating these policies?

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Whats happening on Your Campus

• Some questions to consider
• Problems
• What real world problems do your faculty face?
• Are your family policies formal or informal?
  Informal policies require more negotiation and
  are less likely to be consistent
• Do your policies cover staff, graduate students,
  and contingent faculty as well as tenure-track
  faculty?
• Are resources available to make the policies
  work?

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What Next?

• Tools to identify existing problems
• Workload surveys
• Faculty discussions
• Departmental discussions
• Focused discussions with junior faculty

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What Next?

• Some possible actions
• Press for improvement in areas where campus
  policies fall below the norm for other colleges
  and universities
• Provide information for department chairs, deans
  and others about national law and campus policies
• Advertise existing policies more effectively

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What Next?

• Some possible actions
• Use new faculty orientation and other forums to
  make sure faculty are aware of their rights
• Identify a particular goal of importance to your
  faculty and advocate for policy change
• Track the use of existing policies on your campus
  and make the results available

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BEGINDISCUSSION