Wellesley College

"There are a lot of politics at the college, which seems to stem from a history of bad relationships among various directors and other people in leadership roles between departments. Definitely do your research about the specific department culture (and any others with whom you'd be working) beforehand. Your ability to take flex time or work from home days depends on your supervisor - these arrangements are often approved at the department-level and not formally established through Human Resources. Women working at the college for less than 12 months who are seeking maternity leave only receive 8 weeks of unpaid leave - which must be used all at once or forfeited otherwise - which is what is mandated by state law (this would cover paternity leave as well). Women with at least a year of employment receive 6 weeks of paid leave plus 6 weeks of unpaid leave; however, they are required to exhaust any accrued paid time off (vacation, sick, personal) during the unpaid leave time; you are given the option to use the total 12 weeks all at once or throughout the first year following the birth of your child. There is also very little transparency about pay ranges - the college does not list them, even for specific titles, and even within departments you are likely to discover that someone with the same title and comparable role as you is making as much as a 50% difference in salary. The vast majority of employees are female, which is what makes all of these policies all the more surprising. Finally, there is very little diversity at the leadership level."