The Impact of Work/Life Balance Policies on Faculty Careers

Even though the number of doctorate degrees awarded to women in recent years has increased, the gender gap among tenured and tenure-track faculty has persisted. This gender gap is even wider in disciplines such as engineering. In 2012, women earned just 22.6% of the 8,110 doctorate degrees awarded in engineering. During this same year, women compromised 14% of tenured and tenure-track engineering faculty in the United States. Research indicates that gender gaps are in part due to institutional climates, including gender inequality and discrimination gender bias, and unconscious bias that impact the professional success of women faculty. Other factors such as marital status and parenting young children provide possible explanations for the gender gap in tenure-track promotion. Research institutions in particular have competitive environments that demand long work hours to meet publishing, entrepreneurial and instructional requirements. These work intensive environments lead to a less work-family friendly atmosphere that often supersedes institutional gender-neutral work-life balance policies and may result in penalties when such policies are used by faculty. In addition, department chairs and colleagues may not perceive family care giving as valuable experiences and believe that these responsibilities only affect women faculty. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of work-life balance policy perceptions on faculty members’ careers across disciplines at a Southeastern research university classified as a very high research activity institution. Using a mixed methods approach, the study draws from institutional records, survey data, and faculty interviews. This paper focuses on the qualitative data. Findings reveal that the work-life policies have challenged some of the gender biases and gender inequality that existed in the institutional culture, and have resulted in faculty members valuing the work-life policies and recommending that other faculty members take advantage of them. Nonetheless, there continue to be gender differences in family formation and career progression within the institution. Initial findings from this study have implications in the development of institutional policies and the study of faculty career progression and job satisfaction.