Yale University

"Find advocates and like-minded people to help you navigate the bureaucracy, and be aware that the institution itself will make things difficult."

"Network, Network , Network. It is 2x as hard being a woman in IT at Yale but can be very worth it. "

"Like any university, some major issues can get swept under the rug. I had a friend who was verbally abused and threatened by her boss and the university did nothing to help."

"Make absolutely sure that your individual department is good. Find out what happened to whomever you are replacing and NEVER work on Medical Campus. Its horrid. Literally. "

"Come here with your eyes wide open. It's the biggest game in town employer-wise and in some ways the only option. The unionized staff get a pretty great deal, their pay and benefits are really quite good. The exempt staff are compensated well but are expected to sacrifice to support the non-exempt staff budget. It's not going to last much longer. They can't keep squeezing us so they can make the union budget payments."

"Depends on the department. Maybe I got lucky with my boss, but I feel very valued and equal in my workspace."

"Time off, maternity and paternity leave are better than finance industry, but new hires get significantly less time off than employees who have been there longer than 7 years. This refers to staff, not faculty, where the inequities maybe more pronounced."

"Negotiate your pay. Ask what the median pay is for people in your role? What's the market range?"

"The time you take for maternity is based off of your accrued time. If you are in management, you get 6 weeks paid by disability. Any other time is based on your own PTO bank. Previously, the university did not have short-term disability that guaranteed any maternity leave, but you could accrue up to 64 vacation days. That total vacation carry-over is now just 15 days. Therefore, maternity leave is better and worse -- all managers can have 6 paid weeks, but it is unlikely that women will be able to take 4 months paid time off like I was able to do in the past. There are a number of women in leadership roles and women are able to advance, yet we still face challenges. I find there's acceptance for taking leave and time off. Flexibility is the norm."

"I put my unpaid leave as 19, but I was paid for 13 of the weeks--using my accrued sick and vacation time. I could have taken the full FMLA unpaid time off, but wanted to have a salary again. There are some childcare centers on campus but I think they are small and hard to get into. One has hours of 8:30-5, which are my normal working hours, so maybe only professors can use it? Flextime and working from home are sort of available; it depends on your boss and job. I have heard the director is not a fan of working from home. Women are in more than half of the top level jobs but it still feels male-dominated. Yale has some great benefits--a college tuition donation, free/nearly free health care option, generous vacation (if were hired before 2009), events and resources on campus. The university feels more corporate and has lessened benefits over the last 5+ years to save money. As a non-profit, there are no bonuses--except there were some recently for top admins which was ridiculous. 2 women and the outgoing president were given multimillion dollar bonuses when they left. The president's bonus was supposedly developed while he was working as an incentive to keep him there. Raises are very low (about 2-3%) in my department of the University unless you can get a promotion. The union has negotiated better raises for its members which is great but I feel it is an unfair to non-union members, and creates a usually subtle 'us vs them' atmosphere. The raises are not really merit-based; there is either a proscribed raise or little room in the budget for a meaningful raise."

"I worked here for several years in a women-dominated department. I did see places in the organization where there are few or no women in senior leadership (graduate schools, specifically). There is still room to grow. As a staff member I felt that I had room to advance, a great female mentor and sponsor, and supportive policies and environment."

"If you're in the union, there is no paid maternity leave."

"Only as of this year does the university provide true paid maternity leave - 2 weeks for non-union staff. That is in addition to the 6 weeks paid short-term disability, and up to 26 weeks unpaid FMLA time. HOWEVER, union employees have no paid maternity leave and no short-term disability benefits whatsoever. If you are considering a job at Yale and may need maternity leave, be sure to check the classification of the position you are interested in! There are women in senior positions throughout the university, so it is no longer the Old Boys Club it once was - however there are still elements of that here and there. There are also huge disparities across different areas of Yale with regards to flex schedules, telecommuting, etc. It is really important to get a sense of the culture in your particular department, as there really isn't an overarching university-wide culture."

"I do see a glass escalator in the library -- men who aren't particularly impressive seem to be promoted beyond their capacities."

"Growth is slow, it's challenging to enact change. Woman are in high positions at most levels of the organization. However, when it comes to tenured faculty, men still out number women 3 to 1."