Often the best option for the spouse is to work at the college itself, perhaps sharing a job with the recruited faculty member. The most effective policies provide money to pay the spouse's salary. In other cases, the college could help the spouse contact potential employers. Spousal-employment policies, and the shared positions that often result, can produce significant benefits for the institution as well as for individual academics. Despite the positive experiences of many institutions, opposition to spousal-employment policies is often substantial.
Some faculty members object on grounds of threats to departmental autonomy, or lack of resources.
Those objections can be addressed if the university helps cover the costs of jobs for spouses. Opposition may also come from unions, or from unmarried people who regard spousal hiring as preferential treatment. What that general counsel may not realize is that legal problems may result from current policies. If academic institutions are serious about giving women equal opportunity, they need to redesign the employment practices that continue to have a disproportionately negative impact on women. Joan Williams is a professor of law at American University's Washington College of Law.