Unpaid Care Work: Your Load and Why It Matters
Participate in this short, interactive online educational module released by UN Women to learn more about how gender affects one's unpaid workload.

'Babar in the Room': Faculty Parents are Once Again Being Asked to Perform a Miracle
In this Inside Higher Ed article, Colleen Flaherty (2020) explores the impact of COVID-19 on faculty members who are parents: the stress, anxieties, and institutional responses to faculty with parental responsibilities.

Laura Bistrek

Being an engineer is an important and core part of my professional identity.  However, there have been several occasions in my engineering career that made me feel that perhaps I didn’t belong.  These include: being the only woman or one of a few when I walk into a room for a meeting/professional organization/conference (and rarely seeing someone like me on a panel or keynote); peers commenting that I only got a promotion, opportunity or award because I am a woman; being told I don’t look like an engineer or people assuming I am not an engineer; being excluded from informal social opportunities and informal networking under the assumption I wouldn’t want to take part; having supervisors and coworkers assume that I wouldn’t return to work after having a child (and for sure not after having my second!); being told that I wasn’t given a growth opportunity to protect my time with my family and that I should be grateful. I would like to say each of these things have only happened once, but they actually happened more times than I can count.  These examples are part of the reason I made a career transition into higher ed – to help promote and increase representation in engineering and enhance the culture and climate in engineering.

There are so many actionable ways Allies can help enhance culture and climate in any profession.  Here are a few that are great to start with:

• When at a professional event – challenge yourself to step outside of your normal networking group and introduce yourself to someone you haven’t met before (and perhaps that doesn’t look like you).  Introduce them to your contacts and meet their contacts.
• Say no to being on a “manel”, an all-male panel, or a “wanel”, an all-white panel.  Talk to the organizers about why diverse representation on the panel is important and that there are diverse experts to include.
• Speak about an underrepresented colleagues’ talents when they aren’t in the room, help reinforce their reputation.
• Don’t make assumptions about who fills specific rolls when meeting people for the first time.
• Take your parental leave if feasible – more people using family benefits helps with gender equity
• Follow @betterallies on Twitter and/or read “Better Allies” by Karen Catlin – I have learned so many things about my own bias and  practical actions about allyship in the workplace from these sources

Recognize and acknowledge that your personal experience doesn’t necessarily match others – strive to continually educate yourself.

 

Patrick Thomas

It’s an open secret that women carry the bulk of caretaking duties at home -- cleaning, child care, scheduling the family events, cooking, shopping, managing finances, tending to pets, etc. A less acknowledged but similar open secret is that women do most of the caretaking labor at work as well. While men could mentor new employees, arrange a department celebration, take notes during a meeting, or clean up spills in the kitchen, most often these extra - and unpaid - responsibilities fall to women. And to be sure, it happens across all employment ranks.

The COVID pandemic has only intensified the strains of women’s unpaid caretaking labor, both at home and at work. What’s more, time spent on caretaking is at once both less visible (because it’s happening while most employees are working remotely) and more time- consuming (because what doesn’t takes longer these days?). As advocates for gender equity, men can proactively lessen the load of caretaking labor for women. For example:

• Be an equal partner at home and work: just as you should divide 50/50 the caregiving responsibilities at home, make sure you equally divide the “housework” of your research team, committee, or office.
• Recognize - demonstrably - the extra labor that co-workers take on in the interest of caring for and about the mission of your office, department, or unit.
• Plan for maximum flexibility in scheduling, recognizing that caretaking at home (which now includes virtual schooling) is the norm rather than the exception.
• Organize meetings yourself: Gather availability, schedule the room or Zoom session, create and share the agenda, and take notes for the group on your own.

Clean up the mess: keep your workspace (at home or at the office) tidy and santized. Clean the office fridge or microwave. Clear the clutter. Someone has to do these things - can you share the responsibility?

Share Your Experience

The Women's Advisory Council invites you to submit any comments, questions, or other concerns related to gender equity and campus climate. The form is anonymous and will not collect any identifying information. The Council will share these comments in aggregate with the men's Equity Advocates and Allies as we work collaboratively to affect positive change on campus.