WASHINGTON — A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers recommendations for colleges and universities, Congress, federal agencies, and private funders to support and protect family caregivers in the academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) workforce. The report calls for institutional reforms, piloting innovative practices, and comprehensive legal support to promote the retention, reentry, and advancement of students and professionals in STEMM who have family caregiving responsibilities.

Care is one of the most universal human experiences. Many Americans provide various forms of family care throughout their lives, yet stigma and barriers exist within the U.S. workforce for family caregivers.

Caregiving is a necessary and important aspect of society, and proper support for caregivers in STEMM is crucial for national economic growth, scientific innovation, positive economic and social outcomes for families, and advancing gender and racial equity, the report says. Even so, the U.S. academic STEMM workforce faces a lack of governmental and institutional support for caregiving.

“Most of us have firsthand experience with caregiving, yet family caregiving can be a taboo topic in many sectors of academic STEMM,” said Elena Fuentes-Afflick, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and vice dean of the UCSF School of Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. “We hope our report brings attention to caregivers and stimulates discussion about ways we can better support caregiving at all levels.” 

Comprehensive Federal Paid Leave

The report recommends Congress and the federal government enact legislation mandating a minimum of 12 weeks of paid, comprehensive caregiving leave covering child care, older adult care, spousal care, dependent adult care, extended family care, end-of-life care, and bereavement care. The United States is the only country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that does not have a national paid caregiving leave policy, the report notes. While some federal and state laws exist, the disconnected legal landscape presents challenges to institutional compliance and individual accessibility. Comprehensive federal legislation would supersede piecemeal protections and create a national standard for paid leave.

Departments and agencies implementing STEMM funding are encouraged to follow the model of the recent CHIPS and Science Act, which required the provision of on-site child care for those seeking funds for semiconductor development. That legislation also suggests agencies that distribute STEMM funding include support for child care as a requirement in applications.

Funding for Innovative Practices

Federal and private research funders need to do more to support caregivers in STEMM, according to the report. It urges funders to practice flexibility and fund innovative methods to allow full participation of caregivers in the workforce, including no-cost extensions for grant deadlines and timelines that consider caregiving responsibilities; flexibility in eligibility deadlines for those taking caregiving leave; and reentry programs for those returning from caregiving leave. To promote innovation, funders should sponsor research on family caregiving in academic STEMM, by providing grants for institutions to pilot new programs and policies for caregivers and develop guidance to better support them.

Institutional Improvements

Academic institutions should observe the legal rights of caregiving faculty, postdocs, students, and staff by following all existing legal requirements and ensuring that the institution meets and exceeds minimum practices for legal compliance.

In tandem with legal solutions, academic institutions can increase flexibility around work and educational schedules, time, and intensity and centralize resources to support caregivers. The report recognizes exemplar policies that have been implemented at colleges and universities but notes that these policies are not always consistently applied or well communicated.

Non-compliance with state and federal laws is widespread, and to ensure accountability, college and university leadership should appoint senior leaders, ombuds, or a team to be responsible for protecting, publicizing, and monitoring compliance with established policies and legal mandates, the report recommends.

Culture Change

Although changing laws and institutional policies is important, this alone is not enough. Caregiving responsibilities clash with ingrained norms in academic STEMM environments, which often demand that students and workers demonstrate immense devotion to their fields and are always available and visibly working. Common assumptions about what caregiving looks like and cultural biases entrenched in the STEMM workforce must change as well.

These stigmas and barriers disproportionately affect women — with women of color being affected acutely by the intersections of gender and racial/ethnic biases — and contribute to the national trend of fewer women advancing and succeeding in academic STEMM careers.

Stigma can also lead women and people of color to not take advantage of policies and protections to which they are entitled, causing undue stress on their careers and individual health. Compounding stigmas may even lead to leaving the STEMM field entirely, costing the field skilled, diverse, and innovative talent.

Challenging the stigmas around attending to responsibilities outside of work is key to creating a more equal and accessible landscape for caregivers working in STEMM. Fostering the creation of affinity groups, showcasing caregiving in its many forms through communications materials, and providing opportunities for leadership to normalize conversations about caregiving are easily implemented and impactful practices.

Looking Forward

Addressing the multifaceted and nuanced ways caregivers in academic STEMM can be supported is constantly evolving, and more data are needed to ensure that support is inclusive and equitable. The report recommends that colleges and universities and funders collect data on programs that support caregivers and use those analytics to highlight and improve the services they provide. The report also recognizes that academic STEMM is only part of the overall workforce, and that more research on similar topics in government and industry can be done.

Undertaken by the Committee on Policies and Practices for Supporting Family Caregivers Working in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, the study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Doris Duke Foundation, and Henry Luce Foundation.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Contact:

Solomon Self, Media Relations Officer
Office of News and Public Information
202-440-1991; email news@nas.edu