Family‐friendly policies and gender bias in academia

Abstract

Several recent reports on the status of women in US academic institutions have recommended more generous family policies to encourage and retain more women among academic staffs. Many of the policies suggested are modelled on those that have been in effect in Nordic countries for decades. The status of women among Finnish and Swedish academic staff ranks is examined, with the assumption that women should be better represented if family policies are a significant factor in advancement and retention. It is found that similar conditions for female academics exist in the US as in Nordic countries, suggesting that advancement may be more dependent upon prevailing social conditions and gender stereotypes.

Keywords:

• academic institutions
• faculty
• family policies
• Finland
• gender bias
• parental leave
• Sweden
• United States
• women

Acknowledgements

We thank Markku Virtaharju from Statistics Finland for providing data on women in academia and Johanna Kantola from University of Helsinki for background information. The authors were supported by grant #109942 from the Academy of Finland.