Persistent pandemic: The unequal impact of COVID labor on early career academics
Autor/in:
Ballif, Edmée; Zinn, Isabelle
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2023)
Inhalt: The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted preexisting inequalities in academia but has also exacerbated them while giving rise to novel forms of disparities. Drawing upon our experiences as women, parents, and early career academics (ECAs) in Switzerland and enriched by feminist theory on reproductive labor and carework, we examine the unequal impacts of the pandemic. First, our analysis reveals how the pandemic disproportionately impacted ECAs, a group already in a position of precarity within academia. Second, we identify the broad range of tasks brought about by the pandemic as “COVID labor”. This essential labor—undervalued, invisible, and often unpaid—had a particularly negative impact on ECAs. Third, looking at various intersections of difference, we emphasize that the experience of COVID labor was far from uniform among ECAs with institutional responses disregarding its extent and unequal distribution. In conclusion, we underscore the importance of acknowledging the long-term consequences of COVID labor on ECAs, particularly those belonging to underrepresented groups. Neglecting these issues may lead to the loss of a wide range of talented scholars for reasons that are not related to the quality of their academic performance.
Schlagwörter:academia; Arbeit; care work; COVID-19; early career researcher; inequalities; intersectional; intersektional; labor; pandemie; precarity; Reproduktionsarbeit; Schweiz; Switzerland
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on publishing in astronomy in the initial two years
Autor/in:
Böhm, Vanessa; Liu, Jia
Quelle: Nature Astronomy, 7 (2023) 1, S 105–112
Inhalt: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns changed working conditions for many researchers worldwide. While there exists initial evidence that these conditions have had a measurable impact on the field of astronomy, a comprehensive quantitative analysis is still outstanding. We study the effects of the pandemic on the astronomy community worldwide, with a special focus on early-career and underrepresented female scientists, using public records of publications. We find that the overall output of the field, measured by the yearly paper count, has increased. This is mainly driven by boosted individual productivity in most countries. However, a decreasing number of incoming new researchers is seen in most countries we studied, indicating higher barriers for new researchers to enter the field or complete their first project during COVID. The overall improvement in productivity is not equally shared by women. A smaller fraction of papers are written by female astronomers and fewer women are among incoming new researchers as compared to pre-pandemic trends, in 14 out of 25 countries we studied. Even though female astronomers became more productive during COVID, the level of improvement is smaller than for men. Pre-COVID, female astronomers in countries such as the Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland were equally as or even more productive than their male colleagues. During COVID, on average, no single country’s female astronomers were able to be equally productive as their male colleagues.
Wie gut konnten Forschende während der Corona-Pandemie arbeiten? Eine Studie im Journal “Nature Astronomy” hat dies untersucht. Sie beschäftigt sich mit der Produktivität der Astronomie, könnte aber auch Rückschlüsse auf einige andere Disziplinen geben. Insgesamt haben die Lockdowns und Einschränkungen 2020 und 2021 der Produktivität in der Astronomie offenbar nicht geschadet: Nicht nur stieg die Zahl der weltweiten Veröffentlichungen um 13 Prozent und setzte damit den Aufwärtstrend der vorherigen Jahre fort, auch die individuelle Produktivität der Forschenden wuchs. Dies spricht dafür, dass die flexiblen Arbeitsbedingungen sowie durch wegfallende Wege gewonnene Zeit der eigenen Forschung zugute kam (FAZ, Nature Astronomy). Eine gute Nachricht? Nicht nur.
Denn nicht für alle Forschenden galt dies gleichermaßen: Es waren fast ausschließlich männliche Wissenschaftler, die produktiver wurden, während der Erfolg von weiblichen Wissenschaftlerinnen stagnierte. Sie konnten sogar weniger Zeit als vorher in ihre Forschung investieren. Der Gleichstellung dürften die Pandemiejahre also geschadet haben.
Schlagwörter:COVID-19; gender gap; publication gap
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Gender-based Language Differences in Letters of Recommendation
Autor/in:
Fu, Sunyang; Calley, Darren Q.; Rasmussen, Veronica A.; Hamilton, Marissa D.; Lee, Christopher K.; Kalla, Austin; Liu, Hongfang
Quelle: AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science, 2023 (2023) , S 196–205
Inhalt: Gender stereotyping is the practice of assigning or ascribing specific characteristics, differences, or identities to a person solely based on their gender. Biased conceptions of gender can create barriers to equality and need to be proactively identified and addressed. In biomedical education, letters of recommendation (LOR) are considered an important source for evaluating candidates' past performance. Because LOR is subjective and has no standard formatting requirements for the writer, potential language bias can be introduced. Natural language processing (NLP) offers a promising solution to detect language bias in LOR through automatic extraction of sensitive language and identification of letters with strong biases. In our study, we developed, evaluated, and deployed four NLP different methods (sublanguage analysis, dictionary-based approach, rule-based approach, and deep learning approach) for the extraction of psycholinguistics and thematic characteristics in LORs from three different physical therapy residency programs (Neurologic, Orthopaedic, and Sport) at Mayo Clinic. The evaluation statistics suggest that both MedTaggerIE model and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers model achieved moderate-high performance across eight different thematic categories. Through the pilot demonstration study, we learned that male writers were more likely to use the words 'intelligence', 'exceptional', and 'pursue' and male applicants were more likely to have the words 'strength', 'interpersonal skills', 'conversations', and 'pursue' in their letters of recommendation. Thematic analysis suggested that male and female writers have significant differences in expressing doubt, motivation, and recommendation. Findings derived from the study needed to be carefully interpreted based on the context of the study setting, residency programs, and data. A follow-up demonstration study is needed to further evaluate and interpret the findings.
Schlagwörter:gender bias; medicine; Medizin; natural language processing; recommendation letter
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Gender bias in reference letters for residency and academic medicine: a systematic review
Quelle: Postgraduate medical journal, 99 (2023) 1170, S 272–278
Inhalt: Reference letters play an important role for both postgraduate residency applications and medical faculty hiring processes. This study seeks to characterise the ways in which gender bias may manifest in the language of reference letters in academic medicine. In particular, we conducted a systematic review in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched Embase, MEDLINE and PsycINFO from database inception to July 2020 for original studies that assessed gendered language in medical reference letters for residency applications and medical faculty hiring. A total of 16 studies, involving 12 738 letters of recommendation written for 7074 applicants, were included. A total of 32% of applicants were women. There were significant differences in how women were described in reference letters. A total of 64% (7/11) studies found a significant difference in gendered adjectives between men and women. Among the 7 studies, a total of 86% (6/7) noted that women applicants were more likely to be described using communal adjectives, such as "delightful" or "compassionate", while men applicants were more likely to be described using agentic adjectives, such as "leader" or "exceptional". Several studies noted that reference letters for women applicants had more frequent use of doubt raisers and mentions of applicant personal life and/or physical appearance. Only one study assessed the outcome of gendered language on application success, noting a higher residency match rate for men applicants. Reference letters within medicine and medical education exhibit language discrepancies between men and women applicants, which may contribute to gender bias against women in medicine.
Online panel work through a gender lens: implications of digital peer review meetings
Autor/in:
Peterson, Helen; Husu, Liisa
Quelle: Sci. and Pub. Pol. (Science and Public Policy), 50 (2023) 3, S 371–381
Inhalt: Previous studies have highlighted how the academic peer review system has been marked by gender bias and nepotism. Panel meetings arranged by research funding organisations (RFOs), where reviewers must explain and account for their assessment and scoring of grant applications, can potentially mitigate and disrupt patterns of inequality. They can however also constitute arenas where biases are reproduced. This article explores, through a gender lens, the shift from face-to-face to digital peer review meetings in a Swedish RFO, focusing on the implications for an unbiased and fair grant allocation process. Drawing on twenty-two interviews with panellists and staff in the RFO, the analysis identifies both benefits and challenges of this shift, regarding use of resources, meeting dynamics, micropolitics, social glue, and possibilities for group reflections. RFOs deliberating digitalisation of their peer review processes need to consider these implications to develop policies promoting unbiased and fair grant allocation processes and procedures.
Schlagwörter:digitale meeting; Digitalisierung; gender bias; grant application; inequality; micro-political practices; Mikropolitik; Panel; Peer Review; research funding organisation
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis
A “Chillier” Climate for Multiply Marginalized STEM Faculty Impedes Research Collaboration
Autor/in:
Griffith, Eric E.; Mickey, Ethel L.; Dasgupta, Nilanjana
Quelle: Sex Roles (Sex Roles), 86 (2022) , S 233–248
Inhalt: Research collaboration is key to faculty career success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Yet little research has considered how faculty from multiply marginalized identity groups experience collaboration compared to colleagues from majority groups. The present study fills that gap by examining similarities and differences in collaboration experiences of faculty across multiple marginalized groups, and the role of department climate in those experiences. A survey of STEM faculty at a large public research university found that faculty from underrepresented groups – in terms of gender, race, and sexual orientation – had more negative experiences with department-level research collaborations. Moreover, faculty with multiply marginalized identities had worse collaboration experiences than others with a single marginalized identity or none. They also perceived their department climate to be less inclusive, equitable, and transparent; and felt their opinions were less valued in their department than colleagues from majority groups. Negative department climate, in turn, mediated and predicted less hospitable experiences with department-level research collaborations. These data suggest that multiply marginalized faculty, across different identity groups, share some common experiences of a “chilly” department climate relative to their peers from majority groups that impede opportunities for scientific collaboration, a key ingredient for faculty success. These findings have policy implications for retention of diverse faculty in university STEM departments.
Gendering excellence through research productivity indicators
Autor/in:
Nygaard, Lynn P.; Piro, Fredrik N.; Aksnes, Dag W.
Quelle: Gender and Education, (2022) , S 1–15
Inhalt: As the importance of ‘excellence’ increases in higher education, so too does the importance of indicators to measure research productivity. We examine how such indicators might disproportionately benefit men by analysing extent to which the separate components of the Norwegian Publication Indicator (NPI), a bibliometric model used to distribute performance-based funding to research institutions, might amplify existing gender gaps in productivity. Drawing from Norwegian bibliometric data for 43,500 individuals, we find that each element of the indicator (weighting based on publication type, publication channel, and international collaboration, as well as fractionalization of co-authorship) has a small, but cumulative effect resulting in women on average receiving 10 per cent fewer publication points than men per publication. In other words, we see a gender gap that is not only caused by a difference in the level of production but is also amplified by the value ascribed to each publication.
Inhalt: We study the presence and the extent of gender differences in reference letters for graduate students in economics and how these may affect the start of young researchers' careers. To these ends, we build a novel rich dataset covering ten cohorts of academic job market applicants to two top institutions hiring on the international market. We collect information from the application packages and conduct text analysis of reference letters using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in order to measure gender differences in the style and content of the letters. We then combine the resulting measures with information on the applicants’ subsequent labor market outcomes as extrapolated from the main online repositories. Our results reveal that male and female candidates receive different support from their sponsors and are described in systematically different terms. While female advisors talk more about personal characteristics, only male advisors do so at a different extent for male and female candidates. Such differences in how candidates are talked about affect subsequent career outcomes and explain a non-negligible part (5 to 8% approximately) of the observed gender gaps.
Are we failing female and racialized academics? A Canadian national survey examining the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on tenure and tenure‐track faculty
Autor/in:
Davis, Jennifer C.; Li, Eric Ping Hung; Butterfield, Mary Stewart; DiLabio, Gino A.; Sangunthanam, Nithi; Marcolin, Barbara
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2022)
Inhalt: The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused the abrupt curtailment of on-campus research activities that amplified impacts experienced by female and racialized faculty. In this mixed-method study, we systematically and strategically unpack the impact of the shift of academic work environments to remote settings on tenured and tenure-track faculty in Canada. Our quantitative analysis demonstrated that female and racialized faculty experienced higher levels of stress, social isolation and lower well-being. Fewer women faculty felt support for health and wellness. Our qualitative data highlighted substantial gender inequities reported by female faculty such as increased caregiving burden that affected their research productivity. The most pronounced impacts were felt among pre-tenured female faculty. The present study urges university administration to take further action to support female and racialized faculty through substantial organizational change and reform. Given the disproportionate toll that female and racialized faculty experienced, we suggest a novel approach that include three dimensions of change: (1) establishing quantitative metrics to assess and evaluate pandemic-induced impact on research productivity, health and well-being, (2) coordinating collaborative responses with faculty unions across the nation to mitigate systemic inequities, and (3) strategically implementing a storytelling approach to amplify the experiences of marginalized populations such as women or racialized faculty and include those experiences as part of recommendations for change.
Quelle: Gend Work Organ (Gender, Work and Organization), (2022)
Inhalt: In this paper, we theorize the intersectional gendered impacts of COVID-19 on faculty labor, with a particular focus on how institutions of higher education in the United States evaluate faculty labor amidst the COVID-19 transition and beyond. The pandemic has disrupted faculty research, teaching, and service in differential ways, having larger impacts on women faculty, faculty of color, and caregiving faculty in ways that further reflect the intersections of these groups. Universities have had to reconsider how evaluation occurs, given the impact of these disruptions on faculty careers. Through a case study of university pandemic responses in the United States, we summarize key components of how colleges and universities shifted evaluations of faculty labor in response to COVID-19, including suspending teaching evaluations, implementing tenure delays, and allowing for impact statements in faculty reviews. While most institutional responses recenter neoliberal principles of the ideal academic worker that is both gendered and racialized, a few universities have taken more innovative approaches to better attend to equity concerns. We conclude by suggesting a recalibration of the faculty evaluation system – one that maintains systematic faculty reviews and allows for academic freedom, but requires universities to take a more contextualized approach to evaluation in ways that center equity and inclusion for women faculty and faculty of color for the long term.
Schlagwörter:academic career; COVID-19; faculty; Gender; Hochschule; intersectionality; Intersektionalität; Lehrevaluation; neoliberal university; neoliberale Hochschule; people of color; race; tenure; USA; wissenschaftliche Karriere
CEWS Kategorie:Diversity, Wissenschaft als Beruf, Geschlechterverhältnis