Babies wield a bizarre, gender-dependent power over academics, according to a recent study completed at the University of California at Berkeley.

Researchers found that men who have babies "early" - that is, within five years of receiving a PhD - are somewhat more likely than all others to achieve tenure. But for women, the effect is inverse: those with early babies are far more likely to join the non-tenured, second-tier of lecturers, teaching for less money and fewer benefits.

Women don't gain much by waiting, either. According to the study, the majority of women who achieve tenure have no children in their household at any point after the PhD.

Although the study tracks the post-graduate careers and family structure of almost 34,000 doctorate recipients in the United States, Canadian professor Susan Prentice, co-editor of The Illusion of Inclusion - Women in Post-Secondary Education, says the same patterns plague female academics in Canada.

"Many forward-thinking companies are talking about work-family balance, but universities are not doing this," says Prentice, who is an associate professor of sociology - with children - at the University of Manitoba.

She points to the strike last fall at her university, when the professors' union made improved family leaves one of its principal demands. Prentice said the union produced a study showing the university was saving money by replacing professors on family leave with lower-paid sessionals, but the administration was highly resistant to concessions on family leave provisions.

"I think most Canadian universities have not confronted the reality of a changing professoriate," says Prentice.

She points out that female academics in Canada do have some advantages over their American colleagues. Longstanding statutory rights guarantee continued employment and paid time off in the case of maternity leave, whereas similar legislation was only introduced recently in the U.S.

It also appears, says Prentice, that Canadian universities have started to make some efforts to remedy gender disparities. At least 17 universities have already implemented one of the recommendations of the American study: stopping the tenure clock for one year in the case of maternity leave.

But Prentice says these measures "don't necessarily get at some of the structural ways that work and family balance is absent."

The authors of the Berkeley-based study, Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division, and Marc Goulden, research analyst in the graduate division, also cite a need for "structural changes in the workplace." Some of the measures they recommend include better mentoring, providing support to graduate students with children, improving childcare support, stopping the tenure clock at critical junctures and providing re-entry options.

Mason and Goulden's clearest conclusion is that action is warranted. They found that although the number of women earning doctoral degrees rose from 10 per cent to 42 per cent between 1966 and 1998, the proportion of women achieving tenure has not increased since 1975. Only 45 per cent of women PhDs achieve tenure, compared with about 65 per cent of men.

Information on the Berkeley study can be obtained at www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/02/08_babies.html.