Petition to help pregnant tenure trackers

According to more than 1500 professors the academic world should have a change in action. They all signed a petition which states that tenure trackers should be able to get a pregnancy leave. The petition was handed to minister Bussemaker yesterday.

The problem for a tenure tracker is that they often have a temporary contract, which can not be extended. So if a woman becomes pregnant, it will be a problem for her. Multiple female tenure trackers from TU Delft don’t think this is fair. They feel like women should have the possibility to extend their contract in case they get pregnant. That’s why these women posted a petition online.

Also for dads
When you sign this petition, you support female tenure trackers. Their goal is to extend the contract for researchers to twelve months in case of a pregnancy. These extra 12 months can be used for every child that is born or adopted. Besides, young mothers should have the option to have an extra year to meet the requirements. But men can profit from this change as well. Young fathers should be able to catch up on time they lost during the pregnancy. It is up to the tenure trackers to actually use this extra time, but the goal is to at least give these women an option.

The Dutch Network of Women Professors has been negotiating with with the Association of universities in the Netherlands. At the moment the change in this situation is moving incredibly slow, so the network of women started the petition. 1507 people have now signed the contract. Not all of them are female, a lot of people that signed the petition are male professors.

“We notice that more people are signing the petition every day”

Wioletta Ruszel is one of the initiators. She’s very positive about the influence of their petition. “We have received a big response. About 1500 people signed the petition within 10 days. Our website stays open, around 30-50 people sign the petition every day.” According to her, Bussemaker supports their actions. Monique van der Veen is also one of the initiators. She is glad the petition is a big succes. “The Association of universities in the Netherlands has agreed to discuss matters with us, so we are convinced our action has a positive effect.”

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