Care and academic work in a pandemic lockdown: a study of women academics in South Africa

Abstract

The lack of women in leadership across higher education has been problematised in the literature. Often, contemporary discourses promote “fixing the women” as a solution. Consequently, interventions aimed at helping women break through “the glass ceiling” abound. We argue that the gendered power relations at play in universities cause entrenched inequalities to remain in place, regardless of measures implemented for and by women. This article reports on a study of the impact of COVID-19 on 2029 women academics in South Africa. We examine how academic women’s roles as nurturers at home are extended to their roles as carers at work, and how these impact their prospects for career progression. The article further shows how expectations placed on women academics as carers contribute to gendered dimensions of inequality that are detrimental to both their own well-being and careers. Finally, we call on higher education institutions to “fix themselves”, rather than “the women”, if they want to dismantle gender inequalities.

Navigating Academia : Women’s Stories of Success and Struggle - A Call to Action

“…38 They have to endure workplace environments that have no childcare policies; flexible working hours; complex work schedules; long working hours; huge work-loads; as well as profile females by marital status, and the number of children. [39][40] Women often lack adequate family support systems around them as their families may live outside the cities where they are working, without any feasible means of being in close proximity due to infrastructural and socio-economic realities they find themselves in; many black women may hardly cope in such environments. [41][42] The work-life balance issues can negatively affect work performance, satisfaction, and productivity, leading to stress, burnout, fatigue as well as poor physical and mental health.…”

“…[40][41][42] Women, just like men, are faced with the requirement to continually publish their work while they have much more family responsibilities. [38][39] The lack of paid parental leave, short-term contracts, childcare facilities, maternity policies, as well as pregnancy/maternity-friendly environments, put many females at an academic disadvantage, resulting in a 'leaky pipeline' or in women of a reproductive age re-evaluating their career aspirations or progression in academia to become more realistic. [38][39][40]62 Academic institutions should have initiatives to promote, value and support work-life balance, impact work culture and support women's career-advancement.…”

“…[38][39] The lack of paid parental leave, short-term contracts, childcare facilities, maternity policies, as well as pregnancy/maternity-friendly environments, put many females at an academic disadvantage, resulting in a 'leaky pipeline' or in women of a reproductive age re-evaluating their career aspirations or progression in academia to become more realistic. [38][39][40]62 Academic institutions should have initiatives to promote, value and support work-life balance, impact work culture and support women's career-advancement. 62 They should strive to create equitable opportunities and support to empower women to overcome work-life stressors and barriers they face in maledominated environments.…”

Perceived research productivity of women in higher education: An investigation of the impact of COVID‐19

“…The concomitant load of work responsibilities, childcare, and household chores exacerbated due to the pandemic, which also had potential health‐related outcomes for women with children in academia (Donoso et al., 2021) as well as affected women academics' emotional well‐being (Ronnie et al., 2022). The increased workload had also further aspects including expectations related to catering expanded student needs (Bam et al., 2023). There are findings on the restrictive conditions and negative effects brought about by the pandemic at its relatively earlier stages on women academics' research productivity at all levels/statuses overall and in different areas (Lambrechts et al., 2021; Pebdani et al., 2022), yet this issue has been relatively understudied in the Turkish context, and a now more retrospective and extended examination is needed.…”