Pregnant on the Job Market

Question: I’m putting myself on the job market this year, but I’ve also been trying to get pregnant for the last several months. If I’m lucky enough to become pregnant soon, how will I handle this with potential employers? During the time when it won’t be obvious, should I let people know? What do I say during an interview if I am visibly pregnant?

Julie: The time to go on the academic job market and the time to start a family coincide for many women. It can feel as if you have three jobs -- finishing your dissertation, looking for a job, and planning for a family. It’s important that you clarify your priorities on your own and with your partner, yet realize that things will not necessarily proceed according to your plans. If your plans involve adoption, you will still face uncertainties, because agencies often are unable to give exact dates, and even when they do, the dates may change.

Mary: Decide as soon as you can what you want to do about taking time off from work to recover from the birth, or to care for the child, because this is what you are going to need to negotiate with a potential employer. The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees up to three months of unpaid leave for a variety of circumstances, including childbirth. However, the law does not apply to new employees; only to those who have worked for a particular employer for 12 months.

Most colleges have leave policies for tenure-track faculty members that are far more generous than the federal law requires, but these policies do not automatically apply to new employees. The only leave time that you would be guaranteed by an employer is whatever its policies provide for a new employee who suddenly becomes very ill and needs to be away from work for medical reasons.

What all this means is that you’re looking for an employer who wants to hire you badly enough that it’s willing to be flexible and give you time it’s not required to give. As a practical matter, if you’re looking to defer your appointment for a year or more, you might be better off deferring your search for full-time work.

Julie: If, however, you feel you could start work after a shorter period of time, you should get moving on your job search. Although the future may seem overwhelming, keep in mind that there are others who have obtained academic positions while visibly pregnant -- or who have accepted an offer and then become pregnant or visibly pregnant -- and still managed their entrance into the department gracefully.

Those women had three things in common: knowledge of their institution’s policies; willingness to do as much as possible before the baby’s arrival and during their leave; and resourcefulness in gaining the support and assistance of others in the department. In other words, they made sure they did not squander their social capital.

Mary: Once you have determined that you will want to work relatively soon after the baby arrives, we come to the question of how, and when, to introduce information about your pregnancy or adoption during a job search. If you’re not yet pregnant, or don’t yet have a confirmed date for the adoption, there’s no need to mention it at all, at any stage of the search.

If you are already pregnant, or have a date set for adoption, there is still no need to mention either fact in a cover letter. If you’re invited for a brief first interview that doesn’t involve travel or much of the employer’s time, again you don’t need to bring up the matter at all. However, if you’re visibly pregnant, it’s probably to your advantage to let the employer know of your plans to keep working. Legally, employers shouldn’t be asking, but they certainly will be wondering, and it’s best for you to answer the question even if it’s unasked.

Julie: Say you’re at a conference interview in January and are noticeably pregnant. You might say, “As you can see, I am pregnant and expect to have a baby in about three months. I want to assure you that I am very interested in the position and, if offered it, expect to be able to begin work in September. My dissertation is nearly finished and I have already begun to lay the groundwork for the next stage of my research.” Or, if you’re interviewed later in the year, you might say, “As you can see I am pregnant and expect to have a baby in about four months. I want to assure you that I am very interested in the position, and I would be able to start at the beginning of the second semester.”

Mary: In many cases, this is all you need to say to lay the matter to rest. Unfortunately, since you have initiated a conversation on a topic that employers are not supposed to ask about, you may be asked related questions like, What does your husband do? Would he be willing to move? In response, you could say, “Yes, if I find the right job” or “Yes, because he does all his work from home on the computer,” or “We’ve discussed location issues and will be able to work them out.”

Once you’ve given brief answers to the baby/partner issue, try to move the conversation back as quickly as possible to the professional matters at hand. The employer has a legitimate interest in knowing that you will accept and be available to work at a job, but not in the details of your personal life.

Julie: What happens when you accept a position and then discover that you are pregnant, or that your long-awaited adoption is about to happen? We have worked with people who tried unsuccessfully for years to become pregnant, only to finally have it happen after accepting a job offer. How do you break the news?

First, find out what the maternity-leave policy is before you tell your new department. It’s important to see if there is a semester of paid leave and if it’s possible to stop the tenure clock for a year. While those benefits technically only have to be offered to established employees, your department may be willing to extend them to you.

Mary: Next, think about what would work for you and what you can offer the department. Is it possible to teach up to a certain point in the semester and then have someone take over your courses? If you have to take a leave during the first semester, are there things you can offer to do, such as extra advising or organizing a speaker series? When you talk to your department head, be flexible when you can, but indicate what you need.

Julie: Be prepared for the reaction to your announcement to be mixed, or even negative. Your family-planning decisions are your own, but as a new member of a department, your colleagues are excited about your appointment and this was perhaps not how they expected it to begin.

At the same time, you will most likely find some colleagues who are very supportive and happy for you. A semester off really isn’t that long. The department will survive. The tough part will be learning how to balance your professional and personal responsibilities or, as one new mother and new assistant professor described it, “managing chaos.” You don’t know whether your baby will be “easy” or not, whether you’ll want a longer maternity leave than the policy permits, or how you will feel about your child-care arrangements.

Mary: However long your leave, if your long-term goals include remaining active in your profession, try to keep in touch with colleagues during your time away. And in conversations with them, stick mostly to professional topics.

As a new employee, impressions are being formed about you that will be hard to change later on. You may find your child extraordinary and parenthood one of your life’s most rewarding experiences, and we hope you do, but, as much as possible, put that same energy into discussing topics of professional interest with your new colleagues. You will be banking some capital you can use down the line when you need to have a class covered because you’re staying with a sick child or making one of the other adaptations that parenthood requires.

Julie: Finally, develop a network of supporters with whom you can discuss your situation. Remember, many people outside of academe don’t fully understand the demands and expectations of an academic career, so make sure you talk with other faculty parents. You’ll learn a lot from those at the same stage of life as you, as well as from those who are further along.