Universities are significant cultural institutions, both as employers and educators of future generations. Importantly, they can be institutional contexts in which societal challenges are meaningfully addressed by progressive policy and modelled to students. Specifically, universities can enact policy that recognises the multiplicity of family configurations and challenge normative gendered discourses and roles. This research explores the parental leave policy frameworks of Australian public universities, aiming to gain insights into how current policies and practices affirm or redress gender inequities. This study draws from publicly available documents and online resources to gather the parental leave policy statements of all Australian public universities. The research design was underpinned by the development of a benchmarking matrix tool to document, classify, and problematise parental leave and return to work policies. Key findings from the analysis shows that although policies include a focus on family diversity, they remain largely maternalistic. This produces unequal parental leave and return to work entitlements across genders. Accordingly, this research can usefully inform future design and implementation of parental leave policies for Australian university employees since it provides universities, unions, and staff with an evidence base that challenges the status quo.
Parental leave and return to work policies: benchmarking Australian universities
Sri Ramanan, S. (Author). 2024
Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis