{"id":189064,"date":"2023-06-27T08:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/pregnancy-no-longer-means-end-of-the-road\/"},"modified":"2023-06-27T08:49:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T08:49:00","slug":"pregnancy-no-longer-means-end-of-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/pregnancy-no-longer-means-end-of-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Pregnancy no longer means ‘end of the road’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The combination of lab work, pregnancy and a temporary contract creates a complicated situation. Wageningen University has now introduced measures to automatically extend employment contracts in such cases. This alleviates a great deal of concern, both for the pregnant employee herself and for the research group involved.<\/strong><\/div>\r\n

When doctoral candidate Annemieke van Dam announced in 2017 that she was pregnant, it prompted her supervisor Han Zuilhof, professor of organic chemistry at Wageningen, to spring into action immediately. Being pregnant means having to stop working in the lab straight away. But what if you are on a temporary contract, as a doctoral candidate or postdoc?<\/p>\n

The legally stipulated period of 16 weeks’ maternity leave falls woefully short in such cases, whilst an extension of a temporary contract is by no means guaranteed. This confronts women with academic ambitions with difficult choices: delay pregnancy, take a career break, or simply wait and see?<\/p>\n

There are also considerable consequences for the research group, including additional costs for extending employment contracts that are not covered by grants, as well as delays to publications and projects. Zuilhof launched a broad lobbying campaign to address this problem, and now, after five years of pushing and pulling, it has finally been resolved. Wageningen University has released additional funds so that the extension of contracts for doctoral candidates and postdocs in this situation is almost automatic.<\/p>\n

Unfit for work<\/h3>\n

For Van Dam, this was a dream outcome. During her doctoral research into anti-fouling coatings, she had two children. ‘I became pregnant when I had only just been working for 10 months and had to stop my lab research immediately. I had to go on sick leave straight away and was not permitted to do any alternative work related to my research \u2014 not even theoretical or computational work. In the end, I was away for 11 months. According to the occupational health service, I was unfit for work, as I could no longer carry out my duties.’<\/p>\n

Zuilhof adds: ‘There were no provisions in place for pregnant chemists on temporary contracts. An extension of their contract was not automatic. On top of that, I was faced with higher salary costs, as a doctoral candidate’s salary rises quickly, and I encountered additional overhead costs that could not be recovered from anywhere. The executive board of WUR has now established a dedicated fund to compensate chair groups for the extra costs. That money is used to finance the extension of the doctoral candidate’s contract. As a result, a pregnancy weighs less heavily on the chair group, and for the doctoral candidate it removes a considerable degree of uncertainty.’<\/p>\n

Animal studies<\/h3>\n

All in all, it took no fewer than five years before a solution was found. Zuilhof: ‘I call it myself “the wall of ignorance”. Universities think they have everything well in order, and in many cases they do. For chair groups that have nothing to do with chemical laboratories \u2014 which is the majority \u2014 this problem simply does not arise. So we first had to bring it to the attention of the university’s executive board. In that process, Eva Sieblink, project leader for Diversity & Gender, played a very important role. She translated our practical problem into a formal arrangement that could be put before the board. It then became apparent that the problem was more widespread \u2014 not only in chemistry, but also, for instance, in animal studies, where you are no longer permitted to enter the barn once you are pregnant. Beyond that, it was a matter of creating a funding pot for which no existing route existed. For any large institution, that is complicated and requires time, persistence, and powers of persuasion to bring the money together. As an individual professor, I simply do not have the means to do that myself. The university now has a budget of 150,000 euros per year for situations of this kind, and that appears to be sufficient.’<\/p>\n

Security<\/h3>\n

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, says Zuilhof. ‘Including from colleagues who said they would try to raise the issue at their own universities.’ For Van Dam, the picture was more mixed. ‘My LinkedIn post received a great many positive reactions, but I also received private messages along the lines of “How feeble that you can’t manage without this support”. Particularly from women who had jumped through all the hoops themselves and built an academic career despite their pregnancies. They felt it was a matter of character that they had managed without such provisions.’<\/p>\n

According to Zuilhof, it has nothing to do with character. ‘I think it is only fair to offer young women in chemistry sufficient job security so that they do not have to delay a pregnancy. That should not mean the end of an academic career.’ The results have already proven positive in Zuilhof’s own group. ‘Three days after it became known that a solution had been found, one of my other doctoral candidates took a pregnancy test. Two lines \u2014 absolutely delighted. She told me she was also so relieved that she did not have to worry about her contract extension. And I thought, “brilliant \u2014 that when you see that second line, you also know that your lovely job in the lab is properly secured.” I believe that should really apply to all female chemists on temporary contracts. It would be wonderful if this were also taken up by other universities and institutions, and enshrined in a collective labour agreement by the trade unions.’<\/p>\r\n\r\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The combination of lab work, pregnancy and a temporary contract creates a complicated situation. Wageningen University has now introduced measures to automatically extend employment contracts in such cases. This alleviates a great deal of concern, both for the pregnant employee herself and for the research group involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":186177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[450],"tags":[463],"class_list":["post-189064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deep-dive","tag-science-policy-communication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2w-memo.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}