Academic women and their children: Parenting during COVID‐19 and the impact on scholarly productivity

Abstract

Objective: We explored the experiences of academic mothers traversing the simultaneous demands of parenting and their professional roles throughout the pandemic to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on engagement in scholarship. Background: In response to reports of reduced scholarship by women across academic disciplines, the goal of this study was to understand the lived experiences of women scholars who identify as mothers. Method: Academic women, including faculty and students, completed an online survey with demographic items and open-ended questions. From the collected data, responses from participants who identified as mothers (n = 51) were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Analysis of the data revealed that participants' roles as parents and scholarly women were inextricably intertwined, each serving as foundational components of their identities, a reality highlighted by the exacerbating stressors associated with COVID-19. Altered childcare demands, conflicting roles, and relational changes emerged as consequences of the ongoing pandemic, which compromised participants' ability to effectively attend to different aspects of their identity and sometimes resulted in the development of negative emotions. Conclusion: Participants identified additional responsibilities due to the ongoing pandemic. Feeling pulled between their often-conflicting personal and professional identities, academic mothers cited a lack of supportive professional structures, which became more evident during COVID-19, as a barrier to their pursuit of scholarship. Implications: This study aligned with previous scholarly documentation of historical gendered bias common within academia. The potential long-term professional impact of

“Set Your Soul on Fire”: A Feminist-Informed Co-Constructed Autoethnography of Sixteen Multidiscipline, Multicultural, and Multilingual Globally Located Academic Women Exploring Gendered Academic Productivity During COVID-19

“…The results from our own examinations of academic women as partners (Brown et al, 2021) and as parents (Bender et al, 2022a) during the pandemic mirrored these findings. Many of our academic women participants prioritized family and relationships over productivity or found the increased burdens of quarantine and social distancing, including childcare, did not provide space for the prioritization of scholarship beyond essential job requirements and basic needs in the home (Bender et al, 2022a). These findings suggested that the challenges associated with navigating the pandemic disproportionately and negatively affected women, heightening pre-existing systemic bias within academia.…”

“…A global survey of principal investigators (n=4,535) conducted approximately one month after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic revealed that women-identified scientists experienced a substantial decline in time they were able to devote to research; this was especially noted for those with young children (Myers et al, 2020). The results from our own examinations of academic women as partners (Brown et al, 2021) and as parents (Bender et al, 2022a) during the pandemic mirrored these findings. Many of our academic women participants prioritized family and relationships over productivity or found the increased burdens of quarantine and social distancing, including childcare, did not provide space for the prioritization of scholarship beyond essential job requirements and basic needs in the home (Bender et al, 2022a).…”

“…The first subgroup focused on an examination of scholarly productivity consistent with our overall research goal (n=101; Lambrechts et al, 2021). The second subgroup conducted a thematic analysis of responses from participants who identified as partners (n=67; Brown et al, 2021) and a second analysis of those who identified as parents (n=51; Bender et al, 2022a). The third subgroup focused on graduate student support and productivity throughout the pandemic (n=31; Chance et al, 2022).…”

“…Sixteen multidiscipline, multicultural, and multilingual globally located academic selfidentified women connected in May 2020 through a Facebook group, I Should Be Writing (ISBW) with Cathy Mazak, which is a virtual support community for academic scholars (as of 12/2021, this group has been archived). Moving this digital connection forward, our partnership through COVID GAP has already facilitated many contributions to the literature (Bender et al, 2022a;Brown et al, 2021;Brown et al, 2022;Chance et al, 2022;Lambrechts et al, 2021); it has also served as a lifeline to our own academic identities and scholarly productivity throughout the pandemic. We initially joined together in collaboration in response to reports of reduced academic productivity from women during the pandemic (Andersen et al, 2020;Muric et al, 2020).…”

Online supervision: Addressing clinical services in rural communities during COVID-19.

“…For some, concern regarding the pandemic is so severe that it has led to instances of vicarious trauma (Sneed et al, 2020). Even in the absence of acute symptoms, many people report that the pandemic impacts their quality of life, affecting their parenting abilities (Bender et al, in press), productivity (Brown et al, 2021), and engagement with primary partners (Brown et al, 2021). Collectively, these trends highlight heightened distress among people enduring COVID-19, suggesting the likely need for increased professional mental health support.…”