“Academic guilt”: The impact of the pandemic-enforced lockdown on women’s academic work
Autor/in:
Cyrill Walters; Linda Ronnie; Jonathan Jansen; Samantha Kriger
Quelle: Women’s Studies International Forum, 88 (2021)
Inhalt: According to anecdotal accounts, the guilt engendered by the conflict between employment and family that is pervasive in the academy (or “academic guilt,” in this paper) has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced lockdown. To date, there has been no systematic research that provides a detailed account of, and explanations for, the “academic guilt” experienced by women academics, in particular, outside of the Global North. The research team conducted a large-scale systematic survey of all female academic staff in a nationwide study of South Africa’s 26 public universities during the period of the lockdown. A total of 2029 full responses were received from women at different stages in their academic careers. The survey included an open-ended section that allowed for detailed, unlimited responses by the participants; this section provided a substantial volume of qualitative data, which was coded and analyzed. Leveraging the richness of the open-ended survey data, this study presents findings showing significantly high feelings of “academic guilt” among women academics during the pandemic-enforced lockdown for a variety of reasons relating to the working conditions imposed by the lockdown mandates.
Publishing and Parenting in Academic Science: A Study of Different National Contexts
Autor/in:
Di Di; Thomson, Robert A.; Howard Ecklund, Elaine
Quelle: Socius (Sociological Research for a Dynamic World), 7 (2021)
Inhalt: In the first cross-national, mixed-methods study on gender, family, and science, the authors examined the relationship between research productivity and family life for male and female physicists and biologists in four countries: India, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Drawing on surveys of 5,756 respondents and follow-up interviews with 369 participants, the authors found that the relationship between family responsibilities and publishing operates differently for men and women. Additionally, this relationship is conditioned by the national context in which the scientists work. The interviews indicate that family responsibilities constrain women’s publication productivity according to context. Cross-contextual differences are partially explained by the macro-level gender norms transmitted to academic scientists and how women navigate their scientific research productivity and family responsibilities. The findings have implications for the broader literature on the dialectical relationship between macro-level gender norms and responses by scientists in India, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Toward a Family-Friendly Academy : HRD’s Role in Creating Healthy Work–Life Cultural Change Interventions
Autor/in:
Eversole, Barbara A. W.; Crowder, Cindy L.
Quelle: Advances in Developing Human Resources, 22 (2020) 1, S 11–22
Inhalt: The Problem: The ideal worker in the Academy devotes most of their lives to scholarly pursuits, which leaves little time for family. This problem leads to work–life conflict, which is particularly concerning for faculty members who are seeking promotion and tenure. Work–life conflict is most challenging in the case of academic mothers, who face professional career challenges in addition to work–life conflict. Rigid organizational policies and non-supportive cultures perpetuate the problem, particularly when the faculty member is an academic mother seeking promotion and tenure.
The Solution: Human resource development (HRD) interventions implemented at the individual, departmental, and institutional levels (e.g., training development, performance management, and career development initiatives) have been shown to reduce work–life conflict, improve overall well-being, and create a more family friendly environment. Organization development (OD) cultural change interventions aimed at changing the Academy to become more family focused and supportive of career flexibility are recommended.
The Stakeholders: Academic faculty, higher education administrators, HRD scholars, and practitioners.
Schlagwörter:academic parents; cultural change; family-friendly academy; work–life flexibility
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
The Never‐ending Shift : A feminist reflection on living and organizing academic lives during the coronavirus pandemic
Autor/in:
Boncori, Ilaria
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), (2020)
Inhalt: This article offers a feminist reflection written as a nocturnal stream of consciousness exposing the embodied, emotional and professional experience of living and working during a pandemic outbreak. Framed within a feminist approach, this personal narrative provides an example of the effects of such unexpected and unprecedented circumstances on personal and professional academic lives. Developed during the first stage of the (inter)national coronavirus pandemic, my reflections address issues of privilege; emotional labour; the virtual invasion of the home space within the current increasingly ambiguous space of ‘the workplace'; workload; and wellbeing. Further, I consider how the newly enforced flexible work measures based on online tools have turned current work–life dynamics into a ‘Never‐ending Shift'.
Caring during COVID‐19 : A gendered analysis of Australian university responses to managing remote working and caring responsibilities
Autor/in:
Nash, Meredith; Churchill, Brendan
Quelle: Gender, Work & Organization, 27 (2020) 5, S 833–846
Inhalt: OVID‐19 is dramatically reconfiguring paid work and care. Emerging evidence in the global media suggests that academic women with caring responsibilities are being proportionately impacted. This article fills a key knowledge gap by examining how Australian universities are supporting academics to manage remote work and caring during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We conducted a desktop analysis of public information about remote working and care from 41 Australian universities and compared them to the world’s top 10 ranked universities. Findings suggest that during the pandemic, the Australian higher education sector positions decisions about caring leave and participation in the paid labour force as ‘private’ matters in which employees (mainly women) design their own ‘solutions’ when compared with international institutional counterparts. We argue that COVID‐19 provides another context in which universities have evaded their responsibility to ensure women’s full participation in the labour force.
The Differential Impact of COVID-19 on the Work Conditions of Women and Men Academics during the Lockdown
Autor/in:
Yildirim, T. Murat; Eslen-Ziya, Hande
Quelle: Gender Work Organ (Gender, Work & Organization), (2020)
Inhalt: That the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the work conditions of large segments of the society is in no doubt. A growing body of journalistic accounts raised the possibility that the lockdown caused by the pandemic affects women and men in different ways, due mostly to the traditionally gendered division of labor in the society. We attempt to test this oft-cited argument by conducting an original survey with nearly 200 academics. Specifically, we explore the extent to which the effect of the lockdown on child-care, housework and home-office environment varies across women and men. Our results show that a number of factors are associated with the effect of the lockdown on the work conditions of academics at home, including gender, having children, perceived threat from COVID-19, and satisfaction with work environment. We also show that having children disproportionately affects women in terms of the amount of housework during the lockdown.
Schlagwörter:academics; Arbeitsbedingungen; Arbeitsteilung; Befragung; child care; COVID-19; division of labor; gender inequality; Geschlechterungleichheit; Geschlechtervergleich; Hausarbeit; Kinderbetreuung; survey; Wissenschaftler; working condition
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists
Autor/in:
Myers, Kyle R.; Tham, Wei Yang; Yin, Yian; Cohodes, Nina; Thursby, Jerry G.; Thursby, Marie C.; Schiffer, Peter; Walsh, Joseph T.; Lakhani, Karim R.; Wang, Dashun
Quelle: Nature human behaviour, 4 (2020) 9, S 880–883
Inhalt: COVID-19 has not affected all scientists equally. A survey of principal investigators indicates that female scientists, those in the ‘bench sciences’ and, especially, scientists with young children experienced a substantial decline in time devoted to research. This could have important short- and longer-term effects on their careers, which institution leaders and funders need to address carefully.
Schlagwörter:COVID-19; parenthood; scientist
CEWS Kategorie:Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf, Wissenschaft als Beruf
Ist die Geschlechterrolleneinstellung entscheidend? Die Wirkung länderspezifischer Geschlechterkulturen auf die Erwerbsarbeitszeiten von Frauen
Autor/in:
Kümmerling, Angelika; Postels, Dominik
Quelle: Köln Z Soziol (KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie), 72 (2020) 2, S 193–224
Inhalt: In der letzten Dekade wurde (nicht nur) in Deutschland eine Reihe von Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung der weiblichen Erwerbsbeteiligung eingeführt (Ausbau der Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen, Elterngeld etc.). Während sich die Erwerbsquote der Frauen deutlich erhöht hat, fallen die Effekte auf das Arbeitsvolumen deutlich schwächer aus. Ziel des Beitrags ist es, diejenigen Faktoren zu identifizieren, die zu höheren Arbeitszeiten von Frauen beitragen. Hierfür vergleichen wir auf Grundlage des European Social Surveys die Arbeitszeiten von Frauen in der EU-27 und entwickeln ein Mehrebenenmodell, das uns ermöglicht, Einflüsse von Makro- und Mikroebene auf die Arbeitszeiten gleichzeitig zu beobachten. Auf der Mikroebene kontrollieren wir die individuelle Qualifikation, die Lebensphase und verschiedene Arbeitsplatzcharakteristika, auf der Makroebene soziostrukturelle und familienpolitische Unterschiede in den EU-Ländern. Aufbauend auf der Theorie der Geschlechterkulturen von Pfau-Effinger modellieren wir zusätzlich die Geschlechterkultur als mit Makrostrukturen interagierende Variable. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Wirkung familienfreundlicher Maßnahmen, wie die Verfügbarkeit von Kinderbetreuungseinrichtungen oder flexibler Arbeitszeitmodelle, durch länderspezifische Geschlechterrollenvorstellungen beeinflusst werden. Wir schließen daraus, dass politische und betriebliche Maßnahmen zur besseren Einbindung von Frauen in den Arbeitsmarkt und insbesondere zur Erhöhung ihrer Arbeitszeit nur dann ihre volle Wirksamkeit entfalten können, wenn diese durch die in einer Gesellschaft vorherrschenden Rollen- und Familienleitbilder gestützt werden.;
Inhalt: Der Lockdown im Frühjahr führte auch bei Professorinnen und Professoren zu einer stark veränderten Organisation von Arbeit und Privatleben – mit Auswirkungen auf ihre Publikationsproduktivität. In unserer Befragung berichteten Frauen häufiger als Männer, dass sie aufgrund der zusätzlichen Kinderbetreuung und einem erhöhten Zeitaufwand für die Online-Lehre weniger Artikel einreichen konnten. Die große Mehrheit der Befragten befürwortet, Kinder stärker bei der Beurteilung der wissenschaftlichen Produktivität zu berücksichtigen.