Motherhood and professional advancements often conflict. Studies of female academics highlight gender disparities in senior ranks. One explanation for this inequality is unequal caregiving responsibilities borne by women, particularly in Year 1 of their children’s lives. This project asks whether differential maternity leave provisions across 165 UK higher education institutions exacerbate differentials in the productivity, career paths and job satisfaction of female academics. Research on maternity benefits usually is confined to case studies of a few universities or is discipline specific. Systematic empirical research on how changes in maternity leave policies affect career outcomes in the sector is lacking. This project seeks to fill this gap by providing reliable empirical results that allow a judgement to be made as to the degree to which more generous maternity leave benefits affect female academics with children. Analyses consider variation in outcomes that potentially result both from changes in UK law and the wide variation in maternity leave benefits across the sector.
Presented by:
Tom Scotto (Dept. of Government) Vera Troeger (University of Warwick)
Date & time:
November 18, 2015 1:00 pm - November 18, 2015 2:00 pm
Venue:
2N2.5.24
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