Supporting Family Caregivers in STEMM : A Call to Action

Family caregiving is not simply an outside obligation that has no bearing on the workings of academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) as it affects the lives of so many people working and studying in colleges and universities around the country. Caregiving responsibilities often clash with ingrained norms in academic STEMM environments, which demand that STEMM students and workers demonstrate immense devotion to their fields and are always available and visibly working. Supporting Family Caregivers in STEMM describes the ways in which the labor and contributions of caregivers are often invisible and undervalued, with a specific focus on the academic STEMM ecosystem, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, resident physicians and other trainees, tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty, staff, and researchers. This report reviews policies and practices that support caregivers, locally and nationally, and describes best practices in policy implementation and design. Supporting Family Caregivers in STEMM also highlights innovative practices and offers actionable recommendations to higher education institutions, public and private funders, and the federal government. Table of ContentsFront MatterSummary1 Committee Task and Approach2 Overview of Unpaid Family Caregiving3 Caregiving Challenges and Implications for Equity in STEMM4 Current Laws, Policies, and Practices to Support Family Caregivers5 Barriers to Effective Policy Implementation6 Best Practices for Colleges and Universities7 Innovative Approaches to Career Flexibility8 Recommendations and ConclusionsReferencesAppendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Commissioned Paper AuthorsAppendix B: Caregiver Interview Sample and MethodologyAppendix C: Methodology for Selecting Causal Analyses of the Economic Impact of CaregivingAppendix D: Current Federal, State, and Local Policies to Support Family Caregivers