Earlier this month, the California State Legislature asked upcoming RLSC author Mary Ann Mason, Ph.D., to testify on Assembly Bill No. 2350, an Assembly amendment requiring all institutions of higher education—public colleges and universities—to comply with the Title IX prohibitions on pregnancy discrimination. After considering, among other things, Dr. Mason’s research on women in STEM career paths, as well as an advance copy of her article, Title IX and Pregnancy Discrimination: The New Frontier (co-written with Jaclyn Younger, forthcoming in issue 38.2), the legislature passed the amendment unanimously.
This amendment provides for significant new protections, including a requirement that postsecondary educational institutions to allow graduate students, if they so choose, to take leaves of absence of at least 2 academic terms because they are pregnant or have recently given birth, unless there is a medical reason for a longer absence. The amendment also requires that these students be given at least 12 additional months to prepare for and take preliminary and qualifying examinations and an extension of at least 12 months toward normative time to degree while they are in candidacy for a graduate degree, unless a longer extension is medically necessary.
Check back soon to read this exciting article!
N.Y.U. Review of Law and Social Change 