For every ounce of energy employees spend on coping with issues of work/life balance there’s an equal amount of loss of productivity.
That axiom is the working philosophy of Judith B. Fountain, assistant vice provost for women’s policies and initiatives and director of The Women’s Place at Ohio State University in Columbus.
“And while coping is important, it doesn’t change the system,” adds Fountain, who has worked for the university for a total of 25 years and has been in her current post since 2000.
Changing the system is exactly what she has been doing–from her first appointment more than two decades ago as director of the university’s child-care center and later as its director of work/life issues, a department created in 1991.
Now, as assistant vice provost, she works to “change the policies and hiring practices as they pertain to teachers and administrators, to serve as a one-stop point for information for and about women and to put women in touch with one another.”
In addition, Fountain, who has an undergraduate degree in home economics and a master’s in family relations and human development, monitors the progress of women on the faculty in specific areas. She oversees a three-year study tracking 50 female assistant professors at the university who were hired at the same time.
Fountain has a staff of five and a budget of $250,000 a year–a rare academic post: She says she “has not been able to identify any other institution with a similar department that focuses on affecting policy … and implementing change.”
And change itself has changed.
“In the 1960s, women at campuses nationwide got such things as child-care services and women’s studies by protests and sit-ins, but it didn’t change the environment,” said Fountain, who spent her early years at the university helping women “navigate and cope with” the system.
“By the early 1990s, the question really became, `Why aren’t we happy?'”
After spending five years at a regional non-profit organization, Fountain returned to OSU in 2000 to do her current job. “We want to take what we’re learning and influence what’s happening next,” she said.
The university tracking project, for instance, arose from an analysis of the hiring, promotion and retention rate of women in one department.
“We found it took women longer to get promoted,” Fountain said. “Now the head of that department is asking critical questions about that finding.”
Another research project she helped design was a 2001 sample of 6,355 university staff members about “what contributes to or detracts from employee satisfaction and what the university needs to do to help with balancing work/family issues and career development in order to improve retention.”
A similar survey, this one of 3,000 faculty members, was made in 2003. And the combined information was “monumental,” according to Fountain.
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“For the first time ever, we have data for each unit of the university, and it is now being presented to department heads and deans–the people who make the changes,” she said. “Several things already have happened: The provost and president have adopted a work/life agenda as a driver for implementing the academic and diversity plans. They’ve named a director of work/life and developed an official work/life policy.”
Fountain is justifiably proud of the progress of her institution.
“I feel very strongly that this assures us that the university is going to be more effective as it moves forward,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that both women and men in the workforce expect to have equitable relationships at home and at work.
“The thing I see is that we have to stay the course and keep articulating the issues. What strategies work today won’t work tomorrow. Remember, women gave up their sit-ins for this new approach.”
And that sounds like a good policy–and initiative.
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Tuesday and Thursday’s Business sections. Hear her on WBBM Newsradio 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. each Monday and at 11:20 a.m. each Saturday. Watch her “Career Coach” segments on CLTV. Send e-mail to [email protected].