Work Life Balance Policy for the HBCU Context

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The primary focus of this exploratory research study is to investigate the work-life balance policies at North Carolina A&T State University, as well as other minority serving institutions of higher education, to promote the success of STEM women faculty of color. The project will: 1) expand the NCA&T STEM gender equity focus to include an emphasis on work-life equilibrium for STEM women faculty of color and 2) develop a rubric, appropriate to the HBCU context, to support the institutionalization of an HBCU Institutional Policy Matrix. This is a collaborative effort between the North Carolina A&T University ADVANCE Program and the recently NSF-funded Gender Values project, which has as its focus to implement widespread use of a mechanism for collecting and cataloguing institutional family friendly policies and practices as a function of levels of institutionalization and consideration for inclusivity. This collaboration represents an effort to provide institutions of higher education with a practical and tactical blueprint for promoting flexible workplace policies and practices for STEM women faculty of color at the level of precision required for dramatic change and sustained impact. The proposed project will contribute significantly to advancing the national discussion and discourse on matters related to achieving gender friendly climates in the academy, particularly as they relate to the STEM fields. A major outcome will be the HBCU Institutional Policy Matrix that can potentially serve as a featured contribution to the NSF Career Life Balance website, providing guidance to researchers and evaluators about the assessment of the integrity of existing institutional policies and their potential to support STEM women faculty of color.