Although the Women's Initiative report will be officially unveiled today, work leading up to its release has already given rise to a number of improvements for women at the University, most notably in terms of creating a balance between work and family life.
When President Nan Keohane organized the Women's Initiative Steering Committee last year, she charged its 15 members with researching women's issues as they pertain to administrators, faculty, staff and students at Duke. The committee compiled data and formed focus and discussion groups in order to identify some of women's main concerns. So far, some of the biggest changes to come out of the discussions have dealt with child care and parental leave.
In March, the University announced a 6,900-square-foot, $1.4 million expansion of the Duke Children's Campus on Alexander Avenue. The expansion made room for 77 additional children, and spaces that were previously open only to faculty and staff children are now open to the children of graduate and professional students as well.
In addition, with the expansion came the option of part-time care, including half-day and partial-week enrollments.
Although concerns linger about the affordability of the Children's Campus for many employees and students, University officials said in March that they will continue to work on other child care options, including subsidies and assistance for graduate and professional students. There were also murmurs over the summer of a possible child care co-operative for graduate and professional students, which would provide a cheaper alternative and host as many as 15 to 20 children at a time.
A new parental leave and tenure clock relief policy for faculty was approved at the May 8 meeting of the Academic Council, based upon further research into women's issues at Duke. The new policy, which went into effect July 1, reclassified maternity leave as a temporary parental leave rather than considering it a temporary medical leave.
Under the new policy, both male and female faculty may be granted a one-semester or three-month paid leave in the event of the birth of a child, the adoption of a child under the age of six or the birth of a domestic partner's child.
Additionally, the Academic Council's vote now allows for tenure clock relief and non-tenure track contract extensions to faculty members with new children. The policy is unique in that it applies to faculty in the schools of Medicine and Nursing, although there are some provisions that are specific to such faculty.
"We believe that this is the first time that we've been able to... work through the provisions so that we could bring the entire faculty--clinical, basic science and campus side--under one policy," said Provost Peter Lange when the new policy was approved in May.
A new parental leave policy also went into effect Sept. 1 for staff members--another direct result of the Women's Initiative. Eligible staff members who are considered the primary caregivers in their families are provided three weeks paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child. Under the old policy, University employees had to use vacation or sick time for such events or accept time off without pay.
When the policy was announced in August, Deirdre Gordon, program director for the Divinity School and a member of Parents@Duke, lauded the new benefit as one of the University's first commitments to staff members that considers both work and home life. "It recognizes that Duke employees are more than somebody who sits in a chair and works all day," she said.
The Women's Initiative Steering Committee has looked at a variety of other issues, such as safety and security on campus as well as the need for more women faculty members.
In a February update from the steering committee, one member noted that the percentage of female assistant professors in Arts and Sciences has remained stagnant over the last decade, despite the fact that many women complete doctoral or fellowship programs. "There is a clear problem here if women are represented all the way up through the Ph.D. and then the cliff drops off," Keohane said at the time.
Also in February, the steering committee noted that while there is no evidence of salary inequity or promotion bias on the basis of gender, women tend to wait longer than men for promotion from associate to full professor.
The Women's Initiative report, which will be released at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. today, is expected to outline other women's concerns at the University as well as offer recommendations for courses of action to address these issues.
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