Parental Leave Experience for Academic Neurology Faculty at 19 Academic Centers

Despite the rising number of women in academic neurology, there continues to be variability in parental leave (PL) policy, and we need to better understand the impact of PL on career achievements and burnout for academic neurology faculty. We hypothesize PL does not impact academic achievements; however, women who take PL experience higher burnout. The survey was administered to 19 US academic neurology centers from 2/2021-4/2022. Participants self-reported academic achievements (rank, leadership positions, publications, funded projects, awards, and speakerships), experience of PL, family work conflict, and burnout. Groupwise comparisons and regression analyses were performed to examine the effects of PL and gender on academic achievement outcomes and on burnout. Among 239 survey participants, 155 reported taking PL (75% female) and 84 did not (NoPL; 29% female). PL faculty received fewer awards (p=0.018) and experienced greater family-work conflict (p<0.001) than NoPL faculty. No significant group differences were found with other achievement metrics. Among PL faculty that had children, PL women had significantly lower numbers of first/last author publications compared to PL men (p=0.020). When holding rank constant, PL women received awards at rate 1.2 times that of NoPL women, while PL men received awards at rate of 0.34 times that of NoPL men. When holding rank constant, PL women are 6.7 times more likely to experience moderate emotional exhaustion compared to PL men. Parental leave disproportionately affects women and men with respect to academic achievement and emotional exhaustion. In principle, PL is meant to provide support to faculty during a major life event, but the current climate in academic neurology is such that PL policies fall short of this. More work is necessary to resolve existing inequities in academic neurology, provide greater support for working parents, and develop more equitable PL policies.