Step in the Right Direction

At the University of California, with the assistance of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, we have begun a family-friendly initiative for faculty that aims to alter the workplace to accommodate families and promote cultural change (see box below). The university hopes the initiative will help it become more competitive in recruiting and retaining talented faculty, particularly women who may be the stars of their graduate programs but who are reluctant to continue in academia. Many of the program's features are attractive to fathers as well as mothers and will benefit faculty members who are caring for other family members, such as aging relatives. The new initiative adds to a series of family-friendly programs already in place in the UC system. Introduced in 1988, they were progressive for their time but have had low use rates, mostly because of a discouraging campus culture. Existing policies include an active service-modified duties program that enables tenured and tenure-track faculty members with a newborn or newly adopted child to request a grant of temporary relief from duties (normally partial or full relief from teaching for one semester); a tenure-clock stoppage, which allows a tenure-track faculty member to ask that the tenure clock be stopped for a year; paid leave, which grants a leave with base pay of up to six weeks before, during, or after pregnancy; and unpaid leave of up to one year, which may be granted by the chancellor for care of one's own child or the child of one's spouse or domestic partner. Our survey found that faculty underuse these programs for several reasons. Some programs are unknown to the faculty. Some go unused because of confusion over eligibility. And some opportunities to take advantage of the programs are waived because of the workplace climate in which they are offered: many faculty members fear that using these policies will be met with retribution. One survey respondent noted, "My chair argued that relief from teaching duties was exceptional." Another noted, "Over the course of my career, I have observed the university increasingly taking on the model of corporate culture. I am not surprised that so few of my junior colleagues have decided to have children. Graduate students pick up the signal very early: devote time to family or community at your own risk." The new UC initiative focuses not just on building extra features onto an existing framework, but also on ensuring that the entire package becomes institutionalized into the campus culture. Some of the new proposals, such as introducing part-time tenure-track positions, are controversial. It will take much groundwork to convince all constituencies that the changes are worth the time and money. But they are necessary to ensure gender equity-in both career and family goals-for the next generation of academics. We want to be able respond to the question, frequently asked by our women graduate students, "When is a good time to have a baby?" with a resounding, "Any time."