E7: Setting boundaries and standing up for your values
with Australian researcher Dr Hannah Badland
Key Takeways
In Australia by law you have one year maternity or parental leave but you can negotiate two years. My university has a very generous policy where you get up to six months paid leave full salary, plus a three month return to work bonus if you return on your agreed upon date. So there are a lot of financial incentives.
There's a lot of opportunities to return back to part-time work. There's lots of support for non traditional families including systems to support you back to work called 'keep in touch days' and you're allowed up to 10 while you're on your parental leave break and they're paid days to come to workshops or planning days, or you need to meet your manager. So you feel like you've got a handle on what's going on.
My university is also now trialing a new program called reignite and it's to support people who've come back from significant caring responsibilities back into a career. It ranges from one-to-one coaching, how to actually plan the year, how be strategic, etc. And then it moves right through to $50,000 seed funding to support research assistance to continue your work and help bring you back up to full productivity after being on a break for a while.
So many times where women, particularly around the period of child-rearing, their career progression just stalls. Time and time again, internationally, nationally, locally, there is only a whole bunch of men and senior jobs and it's just so systemic and it's such a problem.
I actually think I'm a much better researcher and much better leader and much better in a team environment after having children. It sets your perspective that it develops all those other skills that aren't necessarily measurable, but in terms of actually being successful and people wanting to collaborate with you, bringing a team and building a team around you and actually being a really effective leader.
The pandemic was a challenge for moms but it actually alters the trajectory of people's careers. They were missing out on research meetings and missing out on decision-making opportunities. They lost their visibility. How we can actually put systems in place that are fair and recognize that burden?
I think we now have been faced with the challenge of raising a family and trying to maintain a career is that I'm applying an equity lens over policies. And that's something that I probably wasn't thinking about so much because I hadn't really been faced with it. And now that I have it's that lived experience has really shaped my perspectives and understanding how you can advocate for others.
I only work 4 days a week, everyone knows my hours, I set reasonable expectations for turning work around and I am really firm with my boundaries. I don’t work nights or evenings. And I don’t apologize if I have to leave early.
I think we're at a bit of a crossroads with women, a lot of the senior woman have got there by playing the men's game, but it's often not having children, working very long hours and following the pathway that a man follows. Until we have more diverse experiences at the top the values won’t change.
How are our systems failing? You need to be having that continual check back to understand. And if it's not if it's not happening, how can they be held to account? What are the values that are going on? To put all this on the shoulder of the women victims is a really big weight to bear.
If you want to change the system, you've actually already got to be really good at what you do, which is it's this huge burden for women. They need to have credibility as researchers. They need to have the right soft skill sets to be able to advocate smartly, and then they also need to be able to really know what levers to push to respond to that diversity.
You might have most fabulous manager who offers you all these opportunities, but then equally you might get a manager who doesn't value you and your contribution at all, and then you're shut down. It needs to get moved into a system where these are the organizational values and everyone is expected to apply them. Be very clear about what the values are and get metrics and systems in place.
If you are contributing to a committee do an assessment in the committee to check are you actually representing the views of the cohort?
We need to train people to become upstanders and prepared to address problems head on. Hollaback! provides training on this. But when diverse values are clear and shared by all, it is much easier.
Bio
Awarded a Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowship in 2017, Hannah Badland is a Professor, and the Deputy Director in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She has worked as a research-intensive academic in three countries and contributes to numerous international multidisciplinary research teams. Hannah earned her PhD in Public Health in 2007. Her current research program examines how the built environment is associated with health, wellbeing, and equity through the social determinants of health. Her work has been adopted into international, national, and state policies and frameworks. Hannah was the Inaugural Australian Health Promotion Association 'Thinker in Residence', a Salzburg Global Fellow, and recipient of numerous awards and prizes spanning research excellence, translation, and leadership. Her papers are among the most cited in the field globally, and are published in leading journals such as The Lancet, American Journal of Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Perspectives. Hannah is passionate about mentoring and supporting others to be their best, and is actively involved in initiatives that support women achieving in academia. Hannah has recently returned from maternity leave, and juggles part-time work and looking after her 5 year old daughter and 8 month old son.
Links to Additional Resources
