Hi Chuck,
I know exactly what's happening--virtually all of my junior colleagues (at least 20-30 individuals) are having troubles managing home, teaching their children from home (with school requirements being overwhelming), in some cases dealing with relatives who have COVID and keeping up with their own school work (teaching classes remotely) and research productivity.
In some cases the husbands/partners--also professionals--some in higher education, some out of work and some in business and industry are also working from home--seem to be sharing in the home duties--but the lion's share of "care taking" still falls on the women and here is what I am hearing:
1. "I can manage multiple obligations better than my partner"
2. " When it comes to choosing between my research program and the development and welfare of my family; my research program has to take a back seat--but I need to keep up a minimum of work to keep my job."
3. "I feel that I can't give up my role as a mother."
4. "I have a better sense of what children and family need"
5. "If I don't take care of my kids schooling, laundry, shopping, cleaning and making dinner, it won't get done."
In many cases, the partner may be a primary bread winner and works outside of academia--if someone's job has to be sacrificed, it will be the person who makes less money such as an academic.
So these are females with younger children at home.
Even women, such as myself, who have grown children outside of the home, the demands of being senior faculty with administrative obligations; buoying up younger faculty who are literally falling apart, buoying up students, RA's and Post-docs who struggling or adrift; attempting to gain command of online resources so data can be collected, managing grants, ect. the list goes on--the productivity takes a back seat.
For me, and I bet for others in my position --if you are weighing publishing another paper with other's needs like, colleagues need me to advocate for them, or I have 10 letters of recommendation to write so my students can begin their career paths or attend administrative meetings to address university needs; which do you think I am going to choose. That's right. Whatever benefits the well-being of the most people. Is this the same decision-making process for men? Granted, I try to do it all as many of my female and male colleagues. But it's not easy.
And this applies to everyone:
Collecting data is very difficult--especially if you are a developmental researcher. Administrative protocols take longer to process spending, IRB, ect.
Why is this not affecting males as much? I am sure there are many males that are similarly affected. Are women finding it hard to let go of control of the family responsibilities? Are men not picking up the slack? Do men feel that their work is more important --children will be fine without all the attention?
Is it the case that men who are highly ambitious tend to be in marriages where obligations are split between economically supporting the family done by one parent and taking care of the home done by the other parent?
Finally, we have to be careful perpetuating gender stereotypes. I referred to mothers, husbands, ect but should be using gender neutral terms like "Partners". Not every couple is a male-female pairing; indeed we have single individuals, and many other different types of pairs. We need to hear all stories.
The article seem to be making a presumption (and me in this commentary) about who females are with and what they are doing in addition to their professional obligations. My experience is with women who have young children at home, mostly studying developmental psychology. But we need to hear from all on this question.
The STEM and Biomedical sciences are already under-representing women--so their situations must be even worse--as suggested by the article.
The bottom-line: Have things really changed for women? We fought for choice. Did we inadvertently fight for a multitude of responsibilities and obligations?
Women have good minds, do excellent science, are professionally active and have something to say. Do we have to say important things in high numbers or can our worth be measured by the quality of our production.
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Breckie (Ruth) Church
Professor
Northeastern Illinois University
Chicago IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-30-2020 10:01
From: Chuck Kalish
Subject: Covid-19 disproportionally affecting female researchers
Hi all, our publisher (Wiley) has asked SRCD to comment on reports that journals are seeing a real drop in submissions from women relative to men. This suggests that female scholars are taking a particularly strong hit to research productivity from the Covid-19 crisis.
I would like to offer experiences/perspectives from our community. What do you think is going on? What other sorts of disproportionality are we experiencing (e.g., rich vs poor institutions), and most critically, what should SRCD and the publishing industry be doing about this?
Please share your responses in this thread. I will collect into a commentary for Wiley (5/8). Let's continue the discussion, though, especially any ideas about how SRCD can respond and support the most effected members of our community.
See this article from Inside Higher Ed as well as this one from The Lily. SRCD staff are looking at our submission data and will report findings here.
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Chuck Kalish
SRCD
Washington DC
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