The focal article (Gabriel et al., Reference Gabriel, Allen, Devers, Eby, Gilson, Hebl, Kehoe and Rosen2023) calls on policymakers, department heads, and faculty to “build structures that support women professors as they navigate the complexities of pregnancy, the postpartum period, and the caregiving demands of their children.” In this commentary, we extend the arguments of Gabriel and colleagues by adding a fourth actor to the conversation: faculty labor unions. We argue that faculty unions are a potential structural support for women professors that can facilitate access to caregiving and family-related resources. Although faculty unions are comprised of fellow faculty members, they provide unique structural power beyond faculty allyship described in the focal article. Unions are something that women professors can potentially rely on when they do not have allies in administration and among their colleagues. And, when they do have allies, they can work in tandem with the union.
To make our case, we first provide an overview of unions in higher education. We then draw on industrial relations literature on equality bargaining to outline how unions can support women professors via two paths: (a) functioning independently by “setting the floor” (i.e., providing access to collectively bargained, contractually secure caretaking and family-supportive resources), and (b) functioning as a partner (i.e., serving as a foundational resource for department heads and faculty allies to strengthen their supportive efforts).
Faculty unions and equality bargaining
Unions help improve wages and working conditions for workers and contribute to the reduction of inequality in society via collective bargaining (Economic Policy Institute, 2021). Public-sector union rights vary by state, but approximately one-third of all public 4-year colleges and universities have a union bargaining on behalf of tenure-track, adjunct, and/or part-time faculty (Cassell & Halaseh, Reference Cassell and Halaseh2014). Union membership in higher education is growing in response to a more contested administrative and public policy environment, including at private universities (Herbert et al., Reference Herbert, Apkarian and van der Naald2020). The largest faculty union in the U.S. is the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), which in 2022 formally affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Literature on equality bargaining, particularly its application to the U.S. context, offers insights on the role of unions and the collective bargaining process in driving change for gender equality issues, including family-related leave and flexibility policies. Equality bargaining is a framework for the prioritization of equity issues in collective bargaining, particularly as they relate to gender. It typically includes a negotiation focus on contracts with provisions that benefit disadvantaged groups, equity awareness among negotiators, and special attention to the potential equity impact of contract provisions (Colling & Dickens, Reference Colling and Dickens1998; Briskin, Reference Briskin2006). Although faculty unions have recently focused negotiations and advocacy on protecting tenure as an academic institution and raising wages, the recent AAUP–AFT merger states goals of “advancing social, racial, and economic justice,” suggesting equality bargaining will be at the forefront of future contract negotiations (AAUP, 2022).
We argue that, through equality bargaining, faculty unions are an important additional source of support for women professors in dealing with work–family concerns. Faculty unions can have a profound effect on both the structural and social supports available to female professors, as well as their accessibility. We outline two nonmutually exclusive pathways through which this is accomplished: setting the floor and partnering with department heads and faculty allies.
Setting the floor
Unions “set the floor” for wages and benefits in an organization through collectively negotiated contract provisions. Formal contract provisions may include paid family leave (including maternity and paternity leave), schedule flexibility (e.g., course scheduling or the right to request working from home), course and service releases, caregiver subsidies, or care-related tenure-clock extensions. Moreover, they have a direct impact on other important working conditions that aren’t ostensibly family or caregiving related but that have an indirect effect on faculty members’ ability to manage work and nonwork demands (e.g., setting limits on numbers of courses taught, faculty voice in setting meeting times). Without formally bargained policy, the “floor” of required workplace family supports is set by law, and as a liberal welfare state, the U.S. has few such supports relative to other countries (Berg & Piszczek, Reference Berg and Piszczek2014).
In addition to setting a higher floor of policy options, unions also raise the floor for policy accessibility. As noted by Gabriel and colleagues, department heads typically have high discretion in allocating access to numerous caregiving-related policies and practices. Although this enables ally department heads to act, it may also enable bias against women professors from non-ally department heads. This is especially important given that faculty caregiving demands may lead to concerns of stigmatization (Kossek et al., Reference Kossek, Dumas, Piszczek and Allen2021), as those who are perceived to be less work focused or poorer performers due to their family demands may be less likely to be “rewarded” with access to family-friendly policies. Unions reduce department head discretion—and potential bias against those with caregiving demands—in policy access by formalizing policy and practice eligibility requirements, and providing mechanisms for appeals and grievances when faculty access is wrongfully denied. Unions also improve access to the few legally required work–family supports in the U.S. For example, unionized workplaces have better compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act than nonunionized workplaces (MacGillvary & Firestein, Reference MacGillvary and Firestein2009).
Partnering with department heads and faculty allies
In addition to bargaining for formal policy and policy access, unions can also serve as a partner to department heads and faculty allies. First, by providing a higher floor of family-friendly supports, department heads have a stronger foundation from which to advocate for female professors with university administrators. Union contracts can divert high-cost items to centralized pools of money. For example, many of the high-cost, caregiving-related policies and practices highlighted by Gabriel and colleagues (e.g., paid parental leave, disability leave for childbirth, financial assistance or subsidies for childcare costs, back-up childcare costs) might be collectively bargained for at a university level. When these provisions are contractual, department heads can focus their attention on forms of support over which they have higher discretion (e.g., course and meeting scheduling).
Second, unions can serve as a partner alongside faculty allies. Gabriel and colleagues identify two main functions of allies: support and advocacy, which can be both colleague and system directed. We argue that unions can partner with faculty allies in each of these four areas. In setting the floor, unions enable new pathways for faculty colleague-directed support. Faculty allies can help educate women and other caregivers on how they successfully accessed union contract provisions and negotiated with department heads and other administrators (e.g., deans) in the past. For example, faculty allies can point colleagues toward union resources or leaders who may help them understand and access contracted family-friendly policies. By sharing their strategy and negotiation results openly, they can help to ensure that their women colleagues are successful in their own negotiations. Importantly, such faculty allies need not be limited to other mothers who have gone through this process; rather, this can be any faculty who previously took advantage of caregiving and family-related supports. Moreover, unions provide a pathway for faculty collective voice, which enables faculty allies to partner with unions to engage in system-directed allyship support for women professors. For example, faculty allies can voice their concerns with union leadership and complete regular union member surveys to ensure that caretaking and family-related issues are always identified as key contract issues (Berg & Piszczek, Reference Berg and Piszczek2014).
Furthermore, unions indirectly support colleague-directed advocacy by giving faculty allies access to family-friendly policies. Colleague-directed advocacy may include faculty allies setting a strong and public precedent with their own use of caregiving and family-related union contract provisions and negotiating with department heads and deans on top of this. In doing so, they can be leaders in showing that policies and practices are meant to be used and, as a result, chip away at stigma that may be associated with their use. This is especially important for higher ranking male colleagues, who may hold greater power and influence, and can therefore send stronger signals about the usability of caretaking and family-related policies and practices. Without union-supported access to such policies, faculty allies may have fewer opportunities to role model policy use. System-directed allyship advocacy may include faculty allies getting directly involved in union activities, including holding a formal position of power as a union leader or by joining the bargaining committee, to help ensure that equality bargaining is a focus for the union.
Conclusion
Although unions do not represent all faculty, and union chapters may vary in the extent to which they engage in equality bargaining, faculty unions are prevalent and growing, and should not be overlooked in their ability to support women professors in their pregnancy, postpartum, and caregiving demands. Although not substituting for the important role that department heads and faculty allies play, faculty unions can play two complementary roles in supporting female professors: as an independent actor that “sets the floor”—even in the absence of other allies—and as a partner to department heads and faculty allies.
