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This is absolutely appalling! I have had my first child during this cycle, taking 11 months off, and had certainly assumed (as had my Head of Department, I know, as we had discussed this during a meeting about the REF shortly after I returned to work) that this would entitle me to enter 3 pieces rather than 4 in the REF. This is unbelievable. It is not only that the primary caregiver (woman or man - but let's be honest, it's mostly women) will have been out of work and thus not research active for X amount of time but returning to work is also a huge struggle and I know many of us find it takes a long time to work out how to balance parenthood with the heavy demands of an academic career. Work-life balance, anyone? Furthermore, for mothers specifically, some of us (including myself) have difficult pregnancies where we are pretty much sick solidly for 9 months before we even go on maternity leave. It is no small matter trying to have children and be a woman in the academic profession and as someone else has already pointed out, the gender stats for female academics in our discipline of Politics are appalling and this sort of crap is only going to make things worse. We finally get to 9 months of statutory maternity pay (though not the 12 months Labour promised us), some decent progress, and now our own profession wants to implement something so gender discriminatory that it beggars belief. For god's sake, the statutory right to maternity leave (not to payment but to actual leave from work) whilst still having a job held open for us to return to is a maximum of 12 months, and HEFCE wants to make it 14 months for us to qualify for a REF reduction? Effectively this means academic mums would have to have LOST OUR JOBS AND THEN FOUND ANOTHER ONE to qualify for a REF reduction! Who the hell thought this up? Excuse my language but this on top of our pensions is just too much and makes me want to give up academia altogether. In the meantime I am all for some collective action on this issue. Miranda P.S. there are other issues to do with how this is operationalised - most of us add accrued annual leave onto the end of our maternity leave period, so as to maximise the paid time we have with our child, which we are entitled to do, and for most of us this adds about another 4 or 5 weeks onto the end of the official maternity leave period. Presumably HEFCE would want to exclude such leave from the calculation of how much time we've taken off with our child(ren), which is another problem. From: psa women and politics group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lisa Harrison Sent: 27 June 2011 16:30 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Maternity leave and the REF Colleagues Joni has already raised this with the PSA Exec - as I have been re-elected for 3 years I am more than happy to ensure the PSA raises this issue at every opportunity Regards Lisa ------------------------------------- Dr. Lisa Harrison Head of Department - History, Philosophy and Politics University of the West of England email: [log in to unmask] <https://owa.uwe.ac.uk/OWA/UrlBlockedError.aspx> From: psa women and politics group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rosie Campbell Sent: 27 June 2011 16:16 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Maternity leave and the REF Dear Rainbow I hadn't heard this ruling. I hope the group will forgive me for making a personal point but this affects me directly and I'm steaming! I have had two children in this round taking 6 months for each, therefore not amounting to any allowance whatsoever! They are right to think that it should be possible to produce four things in the time, but those who haven't had leave will have been able to produce four things of better quality. I would certainly think about pursuing this with the EHRC if they don't make any changes- if anyone else is in a similar position please do contact me and we'll keep in touch to see if we can act together. I am astonished at this discoing. Best Rosie Dr Rosie Campbell Senior Lecturer in Politics School of Politics and Sociology Birkbeck, University of London Malet Street, Bloomsbury London WC1E 7HX 020 7631 6785 ________________________________ From: psa women and politics group on behalf of Rainbow Murray Sent: Mon 6/27/2011 16:07 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Maternity leave and the REF For the attention of the Equality and Diversity working group of the PSA On behalf of the PSA Women and Politics group, I would like to express my profound objection to the proposal by HEFCE to extend to 14 months the length of maternity leave that must be taken before a scholar is eligible to submit three pieces in the next REF instead of the usual four. This is objectionable on a number of fronts. First and foremost, the typical paid maternity leave provision by universities is six months. In order to qualify for the reduction from four pieces to three, a female scholar would need to have three children during the REF cycle. This means that a scholar who has one or two children during the REF cycle would no longer be entitled to any allowances whatsoever for the disruption caused to her research. Nor is the reduction from four pieces to three an adequate compensation for the time lost in the event of three pregnancies. The likely outcome would be that a female scholar who had one or more pregnancies during the REF cycle would be ineligible for submission to the next REF, a policy that would combine sex and age discrimination and serve to wreak havoc with the careers of young female scholars. This is completely unacceptable and must be vociferously opposed by all in the profession. This policy is particularly damaging given the under-representation of women within political studies. The proposal is also to be criticised for its failure to take any account of paternity leave. All responsibility for child-rearing is assumed to lie with the mother. This risks penalising responsible fathers and reinforcing damaging gender divides, whereby the mother is expected to sacrifice her career in order to raise children while the father is unable to spend time with his children even if he wishes to do so. We trust that your working group will join our membership and other professional bodies in doing all that we can to oppose this regressive and discriminatory proposal and prevent it from becoming practice. Sincerely, Rainbow Murray On behalf of the PSA Women and Politics Group -- Dr. Rainbow Murray Senior Lecturer, School of Politics and International Relations Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS Convenor of the Women and Politics group of the Political Studies Association Founder and convenor of the Women in French Politics network www.rainbowmurray.co.uk