Parenthood

Parenting and academia are not easy to reconcile (especially for women), as shown by the differing data, especially on parental leave, for academic and administrative staff.

However, the most striking change over the last 10 years concerns women in administrative staff. Between 2015 and 2025, the proportion of female AUP employees who took maternity leave per calendar year fell from 4.2% to 2.4%, exactly matching the figure for female academics. In 2015, this figure was 2.6% for female academics, which was significantly lower than the figure for women in administrative staff. Possible reasons for the decline in the AUP could be a higher average age and a higher level of education (tertiary education degree) compared to 2015, and possibly also annual fluctuations.

When it comes to parental leave, however, there is a clear difference between women in WUP and AUP: female scientists take parental leave less often and for shorter periods than female administrative staff, as can be seen from the proportion of female employees on parental leave per calendar year. Here, too, the discrepancy narrowed slightly between 2015 and 2025, but remains high. The situation is similar for men, albeit at a very low level.

Men's participation in parental leave per calendar year has increased over the last 10 years, albeit with a very short average duration (including early parental leave). Female academics take parental leave less frequently and for shorter periods than women in administration, but the difference narrowed between 2015 and 2025.

What is striking about parental part-time work is the drastic decline after 2019. Since then, men have only taken parental part-time work in isolated cases, while the number of cases among women in adminstration halved between 2019 and 2021 and has remained at a low level since then.