Equal but Inequitable: Who Benefits from Gender-Neutral Tenure Clock Stopping Policies?

Abstract

Many skilled professional occupations are characterized by an early period of intensive skill accumulation and career establishment. Examples include law firm associates, surgical residents, and untenured faculty at research-intensive universities. High female exit rates are sometimes blamed on the inability of new mothers to survive the sustained negative productivity shock associated with childbearing and early childrearing in these environments. Gender-neutral family policies have been adopted in some professions in an attempt to “level the playing field.” The gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies adopted by the majority of research-intensive universities in the United States in recent decades are an excellent example. But to date, there is no empirical evidence showing that these policies help women. Using a unique dataset on the universe of assistant professor hires at top-50 economics departments from 1980–2005, we show that the adoption of gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies substantially reduced female tenure rates while substantially increasing male tenure rates. However, these policies do not reduce the probability that either men or women eventually earn tenure in the profession. (JEL I23, J16, J24, J32, J44)

Academic Motherhood: Mid‐Career Perspectives and the Ideal Worker Norm

“…Liberal feminism is the predominant view for campuses striving to improve the conditions of the workplace for women and is the basis for creating most workplace family‐friendly policy. Our research and that of others (e.g, Sallee, ; Antecol et al., ), however, shows that adding more women or creating more policies is not enough to generate equal career outcomes for men and women. A liberal view helps identify gender inequality, but it fails to dig into nuanced understandings of equity and gender.…”

“…A few “truths” are evident from looking at the research related to work, family, and the academic career: (a) tenure‐track academic careers are “greedy” and call for total commitment to faculty life, and ideal workers are rewarded (Hochschild, ); (b) parenting, and more directly mothering, is demanding, and being a “good” mother calls for an intensive, and preferably exclusive, commitment to the mother role (O'Brien Hallstein & O'Reilly, ); (c) women have greater access to the academic workplace than they have had historically, but access has not converted to advancement and equity; and, (d) many colleges and universities have created and updated work–family policies (e.g., parental leave and tenure‐clock stop policies), yet these policies tend to be underutilized for fear of bias (Ward & Wolf‐Wendel, ) and have not had desired outcomes (Antecol, Bedard, & Stearns, ).…”

Diversity in the Economics Profession: A New Attack on an Old Problem

“…An analysis of data on all assistant professors hired at top-50 economics departments from 1985 to 2004 found that gender-neutral policies to stop the tenure clock for new parents substantially reduce female tenure rates while substantially increasing male tenure rates (Antecol, Bedard, and Stearns 2016). As another example, desire to have women and minority representation on committees may help explain why women faculty are asked to provide more service, as a survey of 1,399 members of US political science departments found (Mitchell and Hesli 2013).…”

Tax, Social Policy and Gender: Rethinking equality and efficiency

“…Antecol et al (2016) show that gender-neutral policies that provide extra time (often one year) in cases of ill-health or childbirth aimed at dealing with this disadvantage, faced mostly by women, appear ineffective at helping women (but do help men in obtaining tenure). This may be due to the fact that eligibility for the relevant policy does not require taking time off or showing that a substantial amount of time is spent in caring for children.…”