Parental leave is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing: A call for gender-aware policies in academia

(2023) correctly note that in the United States, an absence of appropriate caregiving policies places department chairs/heads and other faculty members as allies in enacting change to support women caregivers in the academy. [...]we conclude with steps for establishing gender awareness in university policies aimed at supporting caregiving, ending with suggestions for practical solutions. Neoclassical economics rejects the notion that unpaid work, including caregiving, is essential to economic prosperity, because it does not contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (Staveren, 2010). Because gender is not considered a critical component of economics under neoclassical thought, it is male-biased, as economic policies historically favor men, and the labor market is historically male-dominated (Staveren, 2010). Given that male academics are more likely to have partners who are engaged in caregiving in the home, and female academics disproportionately shoulder care responsibility, why then are male academics offered the same caregiving support as their female colleagues? Because the provision of gender-blind policies, such as parental leave and tenure extension, are implemented under the auspices of egalitarian caregiving when caregiving is anything but. Put more simply, parental leave and tenure extension policies do not take into account the gendered reality of care. [...]the notion that we, in academia, should continue to tout these gender-blind university policies as beneficial to women caregivers is problematic.