Research Symposium

BIO

Ethan Messier is a sophomore from Sarasota, FL studying Chemistry and International Affairs with a concentration in Spanish. His research interests include organic chemistry, science policy and communications, medical biochemistry, and disparities in science education. Ethan is involved on campus as a Resident Assistant, an Honors Colloquium Leader, and a chemistry and mathematics tutor. He is also the Membership and Outreach Coordinator for the FSU Chapter of the American Chemical Society. After graduation, he plans to pursue his PhD in Chemistry.

Evaluating Family Leave Policies in University STEM Departments

Abstract

How does the quality of a family or parental leave policy influence the retention and recruitment of female graduate students and tenure-track faculty in university STEM departments?

There exists a clear gap between the percentages of women and men in STEM academia, both at the graduate and faculty level. By crafting a more comprehensive parental leave policy, universities can make parenthood more accessible for those working in STEM and reduce the gender disparity in these fields.

We have developed a rubric to systematically score university parental leave policies, allowing us to quantify the strength and effectiveness of the policies that currently exist. We plan to design and distribute a survey for faculty at Florida State University to collect data on the personal experiences of academics who have interacted with the family leave policies of their department. We aim to propose a set of policy recommendations to improve university family leave policies with the goal of increasing the level of female tenure-track faculty in STEM.

The preliminary findings based on the policy rubric show a positive correlation between the policy score, and the number of women on the tenure-track. Additionally, there exists a positive correlation between the rubric score and the university ranking according to US News and World Report. We are in the process of designing the faculty survey and expect the results to support our hypothesis that the quality of the parental leave policy at FSU has posed a significant barrier for female faculty in STEM departments.

Keywords: STEM, parental leave, maternity, university