1 My baby was born on July 6, 2001.

I guess many in academia would consider me lucky; after all I had my baby in the summer when I wasnt teaching. Unfortunately though, I had to be at orientation just one month later, only four weeks after I had given birth. We looked into the maternity leave policy at Duke, but we found out that it was unpaid for everyone but tenured faculty. We knew that we could not afford the loss of my income, so I left my child at four weeks old and began to work again. It was extremely difficult to manage. I wanted to be home with my baby since he was so young, but more than that I was completely exhausted. I had no time to recover from the physical sideeffects of giving birth. I was extremely fatigued, and I struggled to balance a newborn with my classes. Because we decided that breast-feeding was beneficial to our child, I spent an entire semester trying to coordinate appointments with students and meetings with others in my department with the feeding schedule of my child. It seems like something was always being compromised, either my baby, whose schedule was constantly jerked around, or my students who had to deal with my restricted hours. Luckily, I lived nearby and was able to run home easily, but still the constant back and forth was very taxing. We also looked into the daycare program offered to Duke employees because we felt it would be closer and easier to get to throughout the day. They had no space, and, even if they had space, the daycare does not accept children until they are at least six weeks old. My child was only four weeks old when I went back to work. We were given the option of being put on the waitlist, but were told that there was no guarantee of getting into the daycare because the waitlist was so long. On top of that, the tuition for the daycare is almost twelve thousand dollars a year for newborns. There was no way that we could afford that. Though my child is now almost a year old and I no

2 longer need maternity leave, I still have a special interest in this issue. I hate to watch my colleagues go through the same ordeal. I know that other similar institutions have better benefits for non-tenured faculty. If I ever decide to have another child, I may consider a position elsewhere, where women are treated more equally. The story above is of a Duke University faculty member. While interviewing her, I realized that maternity leave was much more than time off for actual childbirth, but was about parenting leave. Just because the physical recovery from childbirth ends, the child and its needs continue. Dr. T Berry Brazelton of Harvard Medical School stated, The first four months are crucial to the parent-child relationship. During that time, the attachment between mother and infant is solidified and stabilized(Dr. Brazelton Advises 4 Month Parental Leave). Expectant mothers should not have to worry about getting childcare for their newborn or worry about coordinating their schedules with their students when their child is only four weeks old. Instead, during those first four months, their child should be the priority. Before hearing her story, I was under the impression that Duke was a progressive institution promoting women. We have a Womens Studies Department and a Womens Center; we protest issues from our countrys war on terrorism to Mt. Olive Pickles and Nike sweatshops to policy in the Middle East, and we encourage the equality of all people from gender, sex, race, class, and sexuality. So, I was very surprised to find out that we had no policy for paid maternity leave for women like the one I interviewed. Ironically, the week after I began my research on maternity leave a meeting of Duke mothers and mothers-to-be was scheduled to discuss issues from maternity leave to being both a Duke employee and a mother. Thinking that the meeting may offer some

3 more perspective about pregnancy from Duke women, I was in attendance. By the end of the hour, twenty-three women had assembled in the small conference room in the Womens Center. The crowd was as diverse as Duke gets, which was a positive sign that the issue of maternity leave does not affect just one group of women. There were pregnant women and those who had already had their children; there were childless women and those who were trying to get pregnant; there were tenured professors, secretaries, research assistants, graduate students, women from other countries, housekeepers, and many other kinds of staff. There were also representatives from many minority groups and many age groups. Though the group was very different, the issues were unanimous. Each woman was concerned about being a mother and also being an employee at Duke; each woman felt that she should be given at least some paid maternity leave, and each woman wanted accessible and affordable childcare. It was encouraging to see that these women wanted equal rights for all women, from the top of the employment ladder to the bottom. I was also very surprised at how little these women knew about Dukes maternity policy. Some expressed that they had heard other schools gave much better benefits than Duke, but no one knew anything for sure. By the end of the meeting, the group decided that the organization would be not only for mothers, but also for fathers and for those who adopt children. They identified paid maternity and paternity leave as the first issue to address. A research task force was formed to find out how Duke compared in their maternity leave policy to other schools. Since I was already compiling this information, I volunteered to head up the research

4 team. The group also had two long term goals: more childcare options and a more welcoming attitude about mother and parents at Duke. This is not the first time that the maternity leave policy at Duke has come under scrutiny. In 1986, a sub-committee for maternity leave was formed out of the Duke Womens Network because of the Universitys push to address female issues and get more female representation in their higher positions. At that point Duke had no paid maternity leave unlike many other schools (Boatwright 1986). The women on the committee assessed the present policy at Duke and then compared it to five other schools: Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins. With the exception of the latter school that had no written policy on maternity issues, Duke was the only school whose maternity policy offered no paid leave for faculty. As reported in a letter from the committee chair Mary Boatwright, the committee addressed three points of the current policy: no paid leave, the discrepancy of possible leave times (three month increments with a four month semester), and the lack of alternates such as a reduced course load. After research and data collection from other schools, the committee proposed that Duke change its current unpaid maternity leave policy to one paid semester of maternity leave or a reduced course load for one to two semesters. After the initial period of paid leave, unpaid leave could be granted for up to one year upon request to the appropriate dean. The new policy would give faculty a variety of options, allowing mothers to return to work if they were ready, but also giving additional (unpaid) time for those mothers who wished to take more time off. The second part of the proposal was for parenting leave stating that a faculty member could be granted one semester paid leave if

5 he/she was the primary caregiver. This parenting leave would cover those faculty who were not birth mothers but were fathers or adoptive parents. When the final changes to the policy were decided, birth mothers were the only individuals who could receive paid leave. Quinn said during our interview, There were two pregnant women who were on the committee with me. When we were offered just paid maternity leave and not parenting leave, we felt like we had to accept. This was a first step, and it directly affected two women. Because Duke made no policy for parenting leave, family/parental leave was still connected to biology and suggested that mothers were the parent that were supposed to be taking care of the children. Since the initial changes in 1986, the maternity leave policy has been almost untouched. When a faculty member discovers that she is pregnant, she must contact her supervisor who in turn issues a request to the appropriate dean. Depending on the department, this can be an easy process or a complicated one. Unlike every other school that I researched, Dukes maternity policy has no separate clause and is hard to find and decipher; it is buried in a paragraph for temporary leaves of absences that also addresses temporary illness and injury.The exact wording is: A faculty member shall be granted temporary medical leave with pay in the event of illness, injury, the birth of a child, or other temporary medical restriction if the restriction will exceed for weeksIn the case of temporary medical restriction arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, and/or other related conditions, temporary medical leave will be available to the faculty member for a period for up to three months (Duke University Faculty Handbook). One tenured Duke faculty member, who has taken a maternity leave, commented on where the maternity policy is placed in the faculty handbook.It seems as if maternity leave has been desexualized since it is grouped with other general medical leaves. In

6 reality though, it shows a lack of regard for a condition that affects only women(Smith, unless stated, all interview subject names will be pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of current Duke employees). Because the maternity leave policy is not visible, it made my research much more difficult. I finally had to get a faculty member to show me where to find maternity leave in the handbook and then to explain the exact meaning of the wording. Although the wording in the faculty handbook states that all faculty will receive up to three months of paid medical leave, this is not entirely true. Many untenured but full-time faculty do not get maternity leave, and instead have to use the Family Medical Leave of Absence, which is 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Even though they are faculty, their benefits are the same as staff and are found on the employee Human Resourses website. Just as the story of the woman in the beginning of my paper, many of these special faculty cannot afford to take the time off. One woman I interviewed is pregnant now and expressed her shock at the maternity leave policy at Duke: I couldnt believe that faculty such as myself receive no paid maternity leave. The fact that some faculty are given paid leave and others are not creates a rift in our community as a whole. Even using my 12 weeks unpaid leave, I will not get a whole semester off and will have to come back to work in order to keep my job. Its not fair to my students or the others in my department for me to come into the semester when there are only a few weeks left (Jones) The time frame for maternity leave is also a pertinent issue. The Maternity Leave policy for Duke employees states: Purpose is to provide a leave of absence without pay to employees that dont meet the eligibility requirements for the Family Medical Leave of Absence. The initial leave period my not exceed three months, but may extend up to one year, in three month increments (Duke University Personnel Policy Manual).

7 Because Duke works on a semester calendar which is a four month calendar, it does not make sense to have the leave period be three months and in three month increments. Instead, it would prove more beneficial to faculty and other staff to have the leave period an entire semester. The time frame issue was addressed again by the Faculty Womens Network, Subcommittee on Parenting Leave in 1989(Boatwright 1989). In a letter written by the committees chair, Mary Boatwright, to the Provost, Phillip A. Griffiths, the problem with the three-month leave was explained. Originally the three-month leave policy was implemented because of the schedule of the Medical School. Though three-months made sense to the Medical School, it did not nor does it correspond to the semester system in place in the School of the Arts and Sciences, the Law School, and most of the other schools of the University, said Boatwright. Though this point was well represented, the policy did not change. Once I had a clear understanding of the maternity leave policy at Duke, I began to research the policies of other schools in order to comparetheir maternity leave polices with Dukes. I focused especially on the schools that we consider equal to us in other areas. To my dismay, this data was quite difficult to collect. It seemed that each school placed its policy in a different place. Some schools grouped all employees together while others had different benefits for faculty and for staff. As I was beginning to choose schools to research, I found a few very interesting articles on this subject that were helpful and pointed me to specific schools that had paid maternity leave. My first lead to a school that had paid maternity policies was an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. It stated, Institutions like Harvard University, the

8 University of California, and the University of North Carolina allow pregnant faculty to take paid time off from teaching for an entire semester (Elliott 23). After reading this article, I focused on those three particular schools and then eventually looked at Princeton, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Wesleyan as well. As I reviewed each schools benefits, there were certain things I looked for. Who were these benefits for? Were they for faculty or staff? Did it matter, as it mattered at Duke, if the faculty member was tenured or non-tenured? How was this information presented in the benefits package? Was it easy to find and also easy to understand? These issues were at the heart of my inquiry. Harvard Universitys maternity policy is different for faculty and staff, but each has a paid leave policy. Harvard faculty, both tenured and non-tenured, are given 13 weeks of paid leave(HSPH Policies Pertaining to Faculty). What is unique about Havards policy is that, A faculty member may request paid leave in order to be the primary caregiver for up to thirteen weeks following the birth or adoption of a child. This means that mothers and fathers may both take equal time off regardless of their parental status, whether or not they are birth parents or adoptive parents. This policy is especially relevant now as the number of same-sex adoptions increase. Harvard also has paid leave options for its staff. Under Parental Leave both birth parents and adoptive parent are given four weeks of leave(Benefits: Time Off). This policy is especially progressive because it does not discriminate against birth fathers and adoptive parents, but Harvard is one of the only places with Parenting Leave for its staff. Because both faculty and staff are granted paid maternity/family leave, the gap between the faculty and staff is lessoned.

9 Though the maternity leave policy at Princeton is different from Harvards policy, both faculty and staff receive paid benefits for maternity leave. Princetons faculty handbook reads, When a personal illness, injury, or disability (including pregnancy and childbirth) renders the individual unable to perform normal duties, sick leave at up to full salary continues up to an equivalent of 26 weeks during normal pay periods (Princeton University). Unlike the policy at Duke, all Princeton employees are eligible for paid maternity leave under the temporary disability leave. Staff are eligible to receive full salary for up to 26 weeks depending on the length of their employment at Princeton (3.20 Temporary Disability). For instance, if an employee has been at Princeton for nine years, she would get 18 weeks of full salary and then eight weeks at half pay as shown in Princeton employees temporary disability schedule. This policy assures that all Princeton employees, regardless of prestige, have access to some paid benefits, even if they are new employees. The treatment of all Princeton employees in an equal manner fosters a sense of community throughout the employee ranks. Another issue that Princeton addresses is junior faculty leave. All junior faculty are granted a 9-13 week paid maternity leave. Pointing specifically to the junior faculty ensures that they will also be taken care of, without exception. Though Princeton does not have paid parenting leave for all its employees as Harvard, it does address parenting leave and has two options for new birth fathers or adoptive parents that are faculty, whether professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or senior lecturer. Parents of either sex are granted workload relief for a whole semester at full pay or half workload relief for two semesters. Workload relief means

10 they have no classroom or committee responsibilities, but instead continue to advise students. Wesleyan University in Connecticut also gives an option of paid parenting leave. Mothers and fathers alike are given two choices: faculty may either take a full semester off from teaching at two-thirds pay, or they may have a reduced course load for a whole semester and have full pay. Not only does this policy address the needs of birth mothers, but it also benefits fathers and parents who are adopting. Wesleyan also stresses that their policy is applied universally (Elliott 24). Because the policy is not connected to biology, family and children, whether conventional or not, are all given benefits. Johns Hopkins University also has a very unique paid parenting leave. There is policy in place specifically for postdoctoral fellows, and it grants one week of parenting leave for birth and adopting parents. In addition to this, seven additional paid weeks are allotted for maternity leave. This leave time is taken from the thirteen weeks allotted for sick leave (Parental, Maternity, and Adoption Leave Policy). Johns Hopkins is one of the only universities that has a separate program for their postdoctoral employees. The maternity policies are very similar at Stanford and the University of California system. Faculty members are granted four months of paid maternity leave (Standford University Handbook; Benefits and Priviledges). Because each semester is almost four months, these schools guarantee their faculty a whole semester, unlike the policy at Duke which only grants three months and then expects a faculty member to return to the job with only a few weeks left of the semester. This policy not only helps new mothers who might have a difficult time transitioning back to teaching at the very end of the semester after just giving birth and

11 caring for an infant full-time, but giving the faculty member the full semester also helps the students. Under the Stanford and University of California polices students would not have to adjust to a new teacher coming in at the end of the semester, where the students at Duke may have to deal with a new teacher coming back to work in the middle of the semester. One instructor at Duke said, I worry about coming in at the end of the semester, even if it is just to tutor. By that point students have gotten used to their teachers, their tutors, and their routines. It would be unfair to interrupt that, especially right before exams and final papers(Jones). Though Duke has made some progress on this issue, other schools have policies that not only make parenthood and working easier to combine but also cater more to the family of the twenty-first century. The Chronicle of Higher Learning states, The summer break is when most academics schedule time for research, writing, and a few weeks of vacation. But for female professors, this is the time of year to schedule childbirth(Wilson A14). Unfortunately this is true, especially at Universities where inadequate maternity leave is granted. In many ways Dukes maternity policy is hypocritical to our desire to recruit and retain women faculty. We profess to strive for equal treatment of our employees and students from gender and sexuality to race and class, but our policies do not reflect that mission. By only granting tenured faculty paid maternity leave we continue and indirectly encourage the mindset that the upper more prestigious positions are more important than the other lower positions. Maternity leave is no longer just a female issue. Our society is changing and there are increasing numbers of adoptions, as well as fathers who are the main caregiver to their children. Dukes maternity policy should also reflect these changes. Having a paid

12 parenting leave shows respect for these new parents, whether it is a biological father or adoptive parents caring for a child, whether it is a mother and father raising the child or a child being raised in a same sex union. The new census data reflects this point exactly. It says, In the 1990s 6 in 10 women who received paid maternity leave returned to work within the year and went back to their same employer. Of those who received unpaid leave, only 4 out of 10 returned to the same workplace (Belsie 9). If we want to recruit and employ the best professors, secretaries, and other employees, and if we want to keep them at our school, then we must have policies that are at least comparable to those of other universities. Duke states in its Mission statement, Duke University seeks to engage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University. If we are to fulfill this mission and stimulate the best efforts of all who are associated with the University, then we should strive to lesson the gap between faculty and staff, and we should put more effort in creating gender friendly policies. No matter how we compare in all other areas, Duke has many steps to take in solving the hierarchical structure of its employees. Though changing the maternity leave policy is only addressing one of these issues, it is a first step and a step in the direction of gender, race, and class equality.

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