Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels
May is when families and institutions alike line up to celebrate Mother’s Day. While May is an excellent time to highlight the strength, resiliency, and power of mothering employees, the advocacy for their unique needs must continue long past Mother’s Day.
We recognize that not all caretakers identify as mothers and that fathers and those caring for parents or family members deserve equal recognition and appreciation in the workplace. However, as this article will explain, women face some unique challenges when it comes to being a working parent.
I had the pleasure of discussing how institutions can support mothers with Gloria L. Blackwell, CEO of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). As a champion for women’s equity and a mother of three herself, Ms. Blackwell offered innovative insight into how institutions of higher education can reimagine support for mothering employees.
1. Examine Leave Policies Beyond Maternity Leave
Many institutions provide new mothers with a standard, 3-month maternity leave. Often, this form of leave requires mothering employees to exhaust their paid time off, sick leave, and holiday leave before providing any parental leave.
“This means that when you come back from parental leave, you’re starting from zero,” said Blackwell. “We all know that once you have children, it doesn’t mean that they just go to daycare and everything moves straight along. Your child may have an illness, you may need to go to a parent-teacher meeting, and all these things require leave.”
AAUW advocates for equitable funding and benefits for graduate students, many of whom are mothers. Blackwell explained that “[Graduate students] are in that semi-employee, semi-student classification. But we know that the age of so many women in master’s and doctoral programs is the age when they are also starting families.”
Conducting routine analyses of employee leave is a task that campuses should prioritize annually. These analyses show the areas where institutions can improve to ensure mothers and all parenting employees have adequate paid leave.
2. Provide Flexible Work Options
The pandemic taught us that higher education was able to function at a high-level while working remotely. Providing mothers with multiple work options — whether it be remote or hybrid options or a flexible schedule — allows for the flexibility that mothers need when raising children.
Blackwell also explained that providing mothers and all caregivers with flexibility allows for all parents to share in caretaking responsibilities rather than relying solely on mothers. However, Blackwell stressed that, “at the end of the day, women are taking on the lion’s share of responsibilities.”
Many colleges and universities have returned to on-campus business as usual. In turn, institutions should strongly consider policies that provide caregivers — especially mothers — with opportunities to work or teach from home when a child is sick.
3. Prioritize Access to Child Care
It is no secret that childcare is critical for working mothers. Having a safe, trusted place for children to go during the workday provides mothers with peace of mind. AAUW reports that the average cost of childcare is nearly $12,000 per year. While some institutions may provide employees with an on-site child-care option, according to Blackwell, it is no longer the industry standard.
“In studies that have been done around public institutions, HBCUs, and tribal colleges, the number of childcare centers on campus has actually declined quite drastically,” Blackwell stated.
An alternative to on-campus care facilities? Blackwell suggests institutions consider a subsidy for both mothers and fathers to help offset the high cost of off-site childcare and ensure parents are paid fairly.
4. Pay Mothers Equitably
A core value of AAUW is to ensure women, including mothers, are paid equitable wages. However, motherhood is currently costing women in ways not experienced by their fathering and caretaking colleagues.
“Women face a motherhood penalty,” explained Blackwell. “We know that mothers are earning $0.58 for every $1 that fathers earn.”
Additionally, AAUW cites research from the Institute for Women’s Research, showing that women who took one year off from work earned 39% less than women who did not.
Blackwell stressed that institutions should focus on routine compensation studies. AAUW has partnered with the Rochester Institute of Technology on a program that examines compensation practices over five years to shed light on how institutions approach compensation and ensure equal pay for mothers.
“Routine compensation analyses are key,” said Blackwell. “When you’re analyzing that data for race, ethnicity, gender, or skill level, it allows you to find out the truth. You look across the institution to determine whether fairness actually exists, where the gaps are, and whether individuals in similar positions are paid equitably.”
Understanding the areas where institutions are weak in compensation establishes equity in the workplace and ensures mothers are not paying an unfair penalty for starting a family.
5. Reimagine Career Advancement
A 2017 CUPA-HR analysis of all higher ed administrator positions showed that representation of women in roles decreased as the median salary increased. Additionally, women only account for 30% of college presidents in the United States.
“In our research, we are looking at higher-level positions, starting with the pathway women take to leadership,” explained Blackwell.
“Men have multiple routes to a [college] presidency, while women take a more traditional one. We found that men came into the presidency not just from higher education, but from business, from the private sector, and from government in ways that women could not. The pathway to leadership is just very different for women.”
There is still work to be done, but Blackwell is hopeful that change is coming for women and mothers in leadership positions. She suggests institutions begin by looking at who is represented on search committees. These are often the individuals determining who is hired or promoted into management positions, especially when considering the advancement of mothers in higher education.
“If [hiring] committees don’t represent a more inclusive group within the institution, that means that institutions will continue to perpetuate the systems that prevent women, especially women of color, from getting to the leadership level,” said Blackwell.
“The problem is not a lack of qualified women,” she explained. She clarified that the problem is blatant discrimination and the obstacles and stereotypes women must overcome to secure leadership positions. Ensuring women and mothers are represented in leadership ensures that certain biases are not used against mothering parents and provides employees with role models in the industry.
“We need the brilliance of women,” urged Blackwell.
In the face of many challenges, Blackwell is proud of the women who have reached the highest levels of leadership in higher ed. “This fall, more institutions will be led by women or people of color than ever before. AAUW is excited and proud that Dr. Claudine Gay, an AAUW fellowship alumna, is going to be leading Harvard this fall.”
The reality of today’s workplace is that mothers are multifaceted. They are breadwinners, caretakers, professionals, and assets to colleges and universities. Ms. Blackwell’s vision is that the value of mothers is recognized in higher education far beyond Mother’s Day weekend.
She hopes that the policies are established to support and advance mothers so they may have strong professional careers while caring for their families and earning equitable wages.
