October 27, 2005 UC Families Newsletter -- A new online newsletter and resource for faculty, staff and students who have parenting or other family responsibilities while pursuing academic goals or careers at University of California campuses. Circulation: 335 Moderator: Karie Frasch email: moderator_ucfam@parents.berkeley.edu Website: http://parents.berkeley.edu/ucfamilies Post a Message: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html ---------------------------------------------- Contents ---------------------------------------------- *Welcome/Update *New postings Dependent health insurance for UC Berkeley students Opportunity for Moms to visit Africa via the BBC *Recent relevant discussions from BPN Medical school post-kids Finishing dissertation/Ph.D. after child's birth Just had a baby - I don't know if I'll be able to finish my degree *Recent news Mothers face disadvantages in getting hired, Cornell study says Rigid Tenure System Hurts Young Professors, Especially Women Faux Family Friendly? Teetering on the Family Friendly Edge: Discrimination Against Mothers in Academia ----------------------------------------------- *Welcome/Update ----------------------------------------------- Dear UC Families subscribers, We launched the new trial UC Families newsletter in May of this year. As is the case with most new lists, it's necessary to reach a critical mass of subscribers before it becomes self-sustaining. We have recently begun a fairly extensive UC-wide publicity campaign to spread the word about this newsletter across the UC campuses, and to grow the subscriber base. Currently, we have a little over 300 subscribers -- about 30% are students or postdocs, 30% are staff, 10% are faculty, and 20% are spouses or other affiliates. Eighty five percent are currently from UCB but most of the UC campuses are represented. If you live in the Berkeley area and have not already done so, you can also sign up for the Berkeley Parents Network or Parents of Teens newsletters. Go to http://parents.berkeley.edu/subscribe.html The following publicity announcement is being distributed; please forward this on to anyone at UC who you think would be interested (we also have glossy printed postcard-size announcements, so send us an email if you would like some of these) -- UC FAMILIES -- An Online Newsletter (http://parents.berkeley.edu/ucfamilies/) UC Families is a new online newsletter and resource for faculty, staff and students at University of California campuses who are balancing academic goals or careers with family life. The UC Families home page provides family resources on UC campuses, UC-wide policy and benefits information, and archives of past advice and discussions. Subscribers can post questions or engage in discussions on topics such as managing work and family, planning the optimal time to start a family, finding advice on progressing academically as a student parent, returning to academia after having a baby, or advocating for flexible work arrangements. UC Families is the most recent newsletter addition to the Berkeley Parents Network (http://parents.berkeley.edu), a no-fee Bay Area parent-to-parent advice newsletter serving 12,000 families. It is also a collaboration with the UC Faculty Family Friendly Edge Initiative (http://ucfamilyedge.berkeley.edu), designed to develop and implement a comprehensive package of innovative work-family policies and programs for ladder-rank faculty in the UC system. -------------------------------------- *New postings -------------------------------------- If you have advice, comments, or feedback please send a response message for us to post: http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html Dependent health insurance for UC Berkeley students ----------------------------------------------------- I was perusing the Health Insurance section of the Berkeley Parents Network web site, and I noticed that all of the information concerning health insurance options for children of students is very outdated. I was wondering if you could post the following, so that students needing insurance for dependents can find the most up-to-date, accurate information: University Health Services can help you learn about and get connected to the health insurance options available for dependents. We are knowledgeable about a variety of individual private insurance plans as well as community-based plans, both publicly supported and nonprofit. Please start by visiting our web site, http://www.uhs.berkeley.edu/students/insurance/families.shtml, which includes descriptions of the available plans and links to the plans' web sites. You can start the selection process by reviewing the plans and evaluating their benefit levels and prices. When you are ready for additional assistance, please call or stop by the Student Health Insurance Office on the third floor of the Tang Center, (510) 642-5700. Opportunity for Moms to visit Africa via the BBC ------------------------------------------- submitted by: Martha Saavedra This is an unusual, but interesting opportunity. The BBC contacted the Center for African Studies to let us know about it. The full announcement is here: http://ias.berkeley.edu/africa/BBC-MomToAfrica-Project.htm BBC Television and the Travel Channel are developing a series that will take 8 mothers from across the US on a 7 week journey to Africa. The itinerary includes the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. We are particularly interested in finding academic, student/graduate and non-profit sector moms who have an interest in Africa but have never had the chance to go. Those chosen must give up all their commitments for the 7 week period. Applicants must be between the ages of 21-55 and never have traveled outside the US, or have limited traveling experience. These women should be prepared to be on TV, be outgoing and articulate and ready to take on a huge challenge. We have a tight deadline. All applications must be received by Thursday November 10th! Interested moms can email the BBC at mtcasting at bbcnyproduction.com or call (212) 974-9050 ext 231. -------------------------------------- *Recent BPN Discussions -------------------------------------- (these are recent relevant postings and responses sent to the BPN advice newsletter) "Medical school post-kids" is on the website here: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/working/medschool.html "Finishing dissertation/Ph.D. after child's birth" is on the website here: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/allkinds/thesis.html "Just had a baby - I don't know if I'll be able to finish my degree" on the website here: http://parents.berkeley.edu/advice/allkinds/gradbaby.html ------------------------------------------ *Recent articles from various media outlets addressing work/life issues ------------------------------------------ -- feel free to post comments or discussion points about any of these http://parents.berkeley.edu/post_ucfam.html 1. Aug. 4, 2005 "Mothers face disadvantages in getting hired, Cornell study says” By Daniel Aloi Mothers looking for employment face disadvantages, including being less likely to be hired, being offered lower salaries and facing a perception that they would be less committed to a job than fathers or women without children, according to an experiment conducted by researchers at Cornell University. From Cornell University News Service (http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug05/soc.mothers.dea.html) 2. September 26, 2005 "Rigid Tenure System Hurts Young Professors, Especially Women, Officials From Top Universities Say" By Robin Wilson From the Chronicle of Higher Education (http://chronicle.com/errors.dir/noauthorization.php3?page=/daily/2005/09/2005092605n.htm). Text included below because this link requires a subscription. Officials of 27 major research universities who met here last week to discuss ways to make the tenure track more flexible said the lock-step, up-and-out nature of academic careers does not leave room for young professors to enjoy their family lives, and hampers women's efforts to advance in the profession. When tenure was established on campuses, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, "the work force really had a single focus -- on work," said Kathleen Christensen, director of workplace programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. "Now, we have a work force with a dual focus -- on work and family." That shift has created a "profound mismatch," she said, between how young professors want to live their lives and how the academic workplace is structured. Cathy A. Trower, a principal investigator at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, described tenure as "a rigid, one-size-fits-all system, with hurdles that are getting tougher and tougher to clear." Academe, she said, stresses competition over collaboration, solo work over joint work, and basic research over applied. "We have structured an academic workplace for men of a bygone era," she said. The university officials met here for a conference sponsored by the Sloan Foundation and the American Council on Education. It was the largest gathering yet of research-university officials, including provosts and vice presidents, who are interested in dealing with the clash between academic jobs and family lives. Already, lots of data show that, for women, academic careers and babies don't mix. Tenured women are much less likely to have babies than are men, and women who do have babies advance more slowly than either women without babies or men with children. Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division at the University of California at Berkeley, said women in academe also are less likely to have babies than are women in medicine and law. According to data from the 2000 census, she said, only 18 percent of 32-year-old female faculty members had babies in their households, compared with about 25 percent of female doctors and lawyers of that age. In fact, the census shows that from their mid-20s through their late 30s, female professors are less likely to have young children than are female doctors and lawyers. Officials here acknowledged that faculty jobs are perhaps more flexible than most. But the sheer volume of work that is expected makes faculty positions difficult to manage, they said. "Flexibility is, in a way, part of the problem," said Ellen Switkes, assistant vice president for academic advancement at the University of California system. "The work is never-ending." According to a survey of the 27 institutions represented at the conference, almost all allow young faculty members to stop the tenure clock after the birth of a baby. Thirty-seven percent allow it to be stopped for one year, 41 percent for two years, and 22 percent for three. Seventy-eight percent of the institutions offer paid maternity leave, and half give young mothers an additional break from teaching, according to the survey, which was conducted by the American Council on Education. Those policies might be on the books, but that doesn't mean faculty members take advantage of them. "We were shocked to find that we have all of these great policies, but nobody knew about them," said Ms. Switkes. "They were buried way down deep in some policy documents." The officials discussed new ways to make faculty jobs more family-friendly, including offering part-time positions, longer stretches of time off from teaching, and ways for women to get back into the academic job market after taking time out to raise children. The University of California system already is considering such policies. Unless faculty jobs become more friendly to families, women -- particularly those in laboratory-intensive fields like chemistry -- will continue to choose lower-paying, less secure, but more flexible jobs off the tenure track, people here said. "Women in science with children who are unable to relocate choose non-tenure-track jobs," said Ms. Trower, "so they will somehow be able to put together a life and a career." 3. September 15, 2005 "Faux Family Friendly?" By Scott Jaschik Article about a recent landmark ruling in support of a UCSB assistant professor who was denied tenure after taking family leaves when her children were born. From Inside Higher Education (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/15/ucsb) 4. "Teetering on the Family Friendly Edge: Discrimination Against Mothers in Academia" By Charlotte Fishman Opinion piece written by the lawyer who represented the UCSB assistant professor in the case described above. From IMDiversity.com (http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/woman/dialogue_opinion_letters/fishman_family_friendly_0905.asp) --------------------------------------------------------------------- - Post a message * http://parents.berkeley.edu/post.html - Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Address Changes, Help * http://parents.berkeley.edu/subscribers.html