Family-friendly policies are important for women faculty.htm

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LOOM—Family-friendly policies are essential to the recruitment of female faculty

Department chairs and deans seem totally unaware of any connection between institutional policies and the difficulty of hiring women faculty. But the importance of family-friendly policies for women (and often men) faculty can hardly be exaggerated.
McNeil and Sher (1999) found that 68% of female physicists are married to other scientists, while only 17% of men are. Thus, while family-friendly policies help both men and women, they are more important for women.
Rosser and O’Neal (2002) interviewed female recipients of NSF grants about barriers to their careers. Family-career conflicts were mentioned more than twice as often as any other issue.
Xie and Shauman (2003) found that women scientists are less likely than male scientists to be married or to have children. Single women have similar scientific career trajectories to single men. But marriage and children have a large positive effect on men’s careers, and a large negative effect upon women’s careers.
We conclude from this that THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING that institutions can do to facilitate the recruitment of women faculty, is to institute strong family-friendly institutional policies.
Institutions often claim that family friendly policies are too expensive. But if they are seen as recruiting devices, they can offset the cost of failed searches, and startup costs for faculty who leave after a few years.
Important family-friendly policies include:
- Help for academic couples. Since women are more likely than men (see above) to be married to other scientists, these policies help both men and women, but impact women more. Institutions should consider shared positions, network with nearby institutions, and explore other options. Flexibility is key.
- Broadly defined and generous family leave policies. This should include domestic partner benefits, and leave to care for elderly parents or a sick family member as well as childbirth. It is particularly important for the administration to monitor cases and be sure faculty are not punished for taking family leave. A single negative example (of a women, for example who did not receive tenure after taking childbirth leave) can poison the atmosphere for decades.
- Availability of childcare. Institutions should monitor the availability of childcare in their area, and consider offering partially subsidized onsite childcare. Coordinating college and public school vacations makes life easier for working parents.
- A family-friendly atmosphere. In one school we visited, the department chair announced at our faculty interview that two people would be late because of family commitments. We were delighted by the matter-of-fact way he accepted family commitments as important. In another department school age children of faculty were around the department in the afternoon, working on homework and talking casually with students.
Loom