Recommendations to Minimize Career Penalties for Parents in STEM Fields During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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We urge employers to accommodate parents and caregivers in STEM fields during the COVID-19 crisis in order to avoid worsening existing inequities in professional advancement. COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges for STEM professionals who are also parents or caregivers, as many struggle to work from home full-time while providing care, a burden that disproportionately falls to women in households. The “mom penalty,” has long limited women’s professional success compared to male counterparts. Now, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing necessary to address it have compounded our concerns about women’s success in scientific disciplines, worsening nearly every disadvantage that women already face. Women scientists of color face even steeper hurdles than white women as they reconcile the increased risk of COVID infection and death in communities of color resulting from structural racism, concerns about racist reactions to precautions such as masking, and increased surveillance and policing in some communities to enforce social distancing, while facing institutional racism in the scientific community. These challenges make clear that there are many steps that employers can and should take now to alleviate the burden and start to address the longstanding inequities that will be inevitably exacerbated by this crisis.
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Infertility
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We urge action on infertility treatment and care. Infertility is professionally and legally regarded as a disease. It is diagnosed by failure to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of trying to conceive unsuccessfully. Approximately one in six couples in the US are affected and 50 million couples worldwide experience infertility. Although infertility affects both men and women4, women bear the brunt of time and cost in the treatment for infertility. Infectious diseases can exacerbate the problem, and women are generally more vulnerable to contracting STDs. Furthermore, cultural stereotypes often inhibit African-American and Hispanic women from seeking treatment, and most LGBTQ couples need at least some assistance in their efforts to conceive. Therefore, infertility, and the challenges it poses, disproportionately affects women—in particular women of color—and LGBTQ families.
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Lactation Support
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We believe that work and study should not interfere with breastfeeding. Breastfeeding has important health and societal benefits, but institutional barriers and lack of support often lead to early weaning. There are many features of scientific work that pose unique challenges to breastfeeding, including: departmental culture, workforce and student mix, remote field sites, open laboratory spaces, hazardous work materials, experiment schedules, teaching obligations, and many more. Unfortunately, in many academic settings and across scientific fields, there are insufficient policies and infrastructure for lactation support and legal protections are often not honored.
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Specific Recommendations: PDF
Parental Leave
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We urge action on current parental leave policies in the U.S. Today, the U.S. federal mandate is the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which only provides 12 weeks of job protection and only applies to companies with at least 50 employees who work 24 hours a week or more. Access to this type of leave varies widely across the U.S. and currently more than 86% of American employees have access to this benefit. In 2016, over 82% of Americans reported that they support paid parental leave policies. Currently, only five states have parental leave policies: California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, and Washington. We recommend that organizations adopt paid leave policies and pass comprehensive legislation that supports parents and guarantees them financial security.