Navigating Parental Leave Through Ad Hoc Policies in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter describes the collective experiences of four tenure-track faculty members at a research-intensive institution who experienced at least one pregnancy and their negotiated, informal family leave arrangements. Informal negotiations specifically around parental leave are common at this institution (and many others across the country). These informal negotiations can take varied approaches as described in this chapter, but across all the experiences of these faculty, these negotiations resulted in negative outcomes for the faculty member. The chapter describes these negative outcomes along with potential rationales for why these types of negotiations exist at academic institutions instead of formalized policies that protect pregnant academics.