Challenges for the female academic during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About: This article is published in The Lancet.The article was published on 2020-06-18 and is currently open access. It has received 193 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Betacoronavirus & Pandemic.
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TL;DR: This article analyzed the influence of gender, parenthood and race on academic productivity during the pandemic period based on a survey answered by 3,345 Brazilian academics from various knowledge areas and research institutions.
Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is altering dynamics in academia, and people juggling remote work and domestic demands - including childcare - have felt impacts on their productivity. Female authors have faced a decrease in paper submission rates since the beginning of the pandemic period. The reasons for this decline in women's productivity need to be further investigated. Here, we analyzed the influence of gender, parenthood and race on academic productivity during the pandemic period based on a survey answered by 3,345 Brazilian academics from various knowledge areas and research institutions. Productivity was assessed by the ability to submit papers as planned and to meet deadlines during the initial period of social isolation in Brazil. The findings revealed that male academics - especially those without children - are the least affected group, whereas Black women and mothers are the most impacted groups. These impacts are likely a consequence of the well-known unequal division of domestic labor between men and women, which has been exacerbated during the pandemic. Additionally, our results highlight that racism strongly persists in academia, especially against Black women. The pandemic will have long-term effects on the career progression of the most affected groups. The results presented here are crucial for the development of actions and policies that aim to avoid further deepening the gender gap in academia.
119 citations
TL;DR: Actionable items from these data include mitigation of burnout and depression through increasing PPE access and provision of wellness programs, with a particular focus on high-risk groups.
Abstract: Background To better understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected surgical trainees' and early-career surgeons' professional and personal experiences, a survey of the membership of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Resident and Associate Society (RAS) and Young Fellows Association (YFA) was performed. Study Design An anonymous online survey was disseminated to members of RAS and YFA. Descriptive analyses were performed and factors associated with depression and burnout were examined with univariate and multivariable stepwise logistic regression. Results Of the RAS/YFA membership of 21,385, there were 1,160 respondents. The majority of respondents (96%) reported the COVID-19 pandemic having a negative impact on their clinical experience, with 84% of residents reporting a > 50% reduction in operative volume and inability to meet minimum case requirements. Respondents also reported negative impacts on personal wellness. Nearly one-third reported inadequate access to personal protective equipment, and depression and burnout were pervasive (≥21% of respondents reported yes to every screening symptom). On multivariable analysis, female sex (odds ratio [OR] 1.54 for depression, OR 1.47 for burnout) and lack of wellness resources (OR 1.55 for depression, OR 1.44 for burnout) predicted depression and burnout. Access to adequate personal protective equipment was protective against burnout (OR 0.52). Conclusions These data demonstrate a significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of residents and early-career surgeons. Actionable items from these data include mitigation of burnout and depression through increasing personal protective equipment access and provision of wellness programs, with a particular focus on high-risk groups.
91 citations
01 Jun 2021
TL;DR: This survey study assesses the relationship of perceived work-life conflict with academic medicine faculty intention to leave, reduce employment to part time, or decline leadership opportunities since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract: Importance: How the COVID-19 pandemic has affected academic medicine faculty's work-life balance is unknown. Objective: To assess the association of perceived work-life conflict with academic medicine faculty intention to leave, reducing employment to part time, or declining leadership opportunities before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Design, Settings, and Participants: An anonymous online survey of medical, graduate, and health professions school faculty was conducted at a single large, urban academic medical center between September 1 and September 25, 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Self-assessed intention to leave, reducing employment to part time, or turning down leadership opportunities because of work-life conflict before and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Of the 1186 of 3088 (38%) of faculty members who answered the survey, 649 (55%) were women and 682 (58%) were White individuals. Respondents were representative of the overall faculty demographic characteristics except for an overrepresentation of female faculty respondents and underrepresentation of Asian faculty respondents compared with all faculty (female faculty: 649 [55%] vs 1368 [44%]; Asian faculty: 259 [22%] vs 963 [31%]). After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty were more likely to consider leaving or reducing employment to part time compared with before the pandemic (leaving: 225 [23%] vs 133 [14%]; P < .001; reduce hours: 281 [29%] vs 206 [22%]; P < .001). Women were more likely than men to reduce employment to part time before the COVID-19 pandemic (153 [28%] vs 44 [12%]; P < .001) and to consider both leaving or reducing employment to part time since the COVID-19 pandemic (leaving: 154 [28%] vs 56 [15%]; P < .001; reduce employment: 215 [40%] vs 49 [13%]; P < .001). Faculty with children were more likely to consider leaving and reducing employment since the COVID-19 pandemic compared with before the pandemic (leaving: 159 [29%] vs 93 [17%]; P < .001; reduce employment: 213 [40%] vs 130 [24%]; P < .001). Women with children compared with women without children were also more likely to consider leaving since the COVID-19 pandemic than before (113 [35%] vs 39 [17%]; P < .001). Working parent faculty and women were more likely to decline leadership opportunities both before (faculty with children vs without children: 297 [32%] vs 84 [9%]; P < .001; women vs men: 206 [29%] vs 47 [13%]; P < .001) and since the COVID-19 pandemic (faculty with children vs faculty without children: 316 [34%] vs 93 [10 %]; P < .001; women vs men: 148 [28%] vs 51 [14%]; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study, the perceived stressors associated with work-life integration were higher in women than men, were highest in women with children, and have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The association of both gender and parenting with increased perceived work-life stress may disproportionately decrease the long-term retention and promotion of junior and midcareer women faculty.
78 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the gender composition of over 450,000 authorships of scholarly preprints in the preprint repositories arXiv and bioRxiv from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract: Academia provides a valuable case study for evaluating the effects of social forces on workplace productivity, using a concrete measure of output: the scholarly paper. Many academics -- especially women -- have experienced unprecedented challenges to scholarly productivity with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we analyze the gender composition of over 450,000 authorships of scholarly preprints in the preprint repositories arXiv and bioRxiv from before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This analysis reveals that the underrepresentation of women scientists in the prestige last authorship position necessary for retention and promotion is only getting more inequitable. We find differences between the arXiv and bioRxiv repositories in how gender affects first, middle, and sole authorship submission rates before and during the pandemic. In a second contribution, we review existing research and theory that could explain the mechanisms behind this widening gender gap in productivity during COVID-19. Finally, we aggregate recommendations for institutional change that could help ameliorate challenges to women's productivity during the pandemic and beyond.
76 citations
Cites background from "Challenges for the female academic ..."
...Additionally, studies have shown significant gender gaps in authorship on COVID-19-related research (Amano-Patiño et al. 2020; Andersen et al. 2020; Gabster et al. 2020; PinhoGomes et al. 2020)....
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...productivity during the pandemic (Amano-Patiño et al. 2020; Andersen et al. 2020; Gabster et al. 2020; Pinho-Gomes et al. 2020), suggesting that the disparity may be due primarily to women not joining new pandemic-related projects....
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...University press offices can also “amplify the voices of women with established records in infectious disease, pandemic response, global health, and health security” (Gabster et al. 2020:1969)....
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...…focusing on COVID-19 is even larger than the general gender gap in productivity during the pandemic (Amano-Patiño et al. 2020; Andersen et al. 2020; Gabster et al. 2020; Pinho-Gomes et al. 2020), suggesting that the disparity may be due primarily to women not joining new pandemic-related projects....
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13 Apr 2021
TL;DR: This paper studied the effects of social forces on workplace productivity, using a concrete measure of output: scholarly papers, and found that women, especially women, have been disproportionately affected by social forces.
Abstract: Academia serves as a valuable case for studying the effects of social forces on workplace productivity, using a concrete measure of output: scholarly papers. Many academics, especially women, have ...
71 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present real-time survey evidence from the UK, US and Germany showing that the immediate labor market impacts of Covid-19 differ considerably across countries.
900 citations
TL;DR: The representation of women among first authors of original research in high impact general medical journals was significantly higher in 2014 than 20 years ago, but it has plateaued in recent years and has declined in some journals.
Abstract: Objective To examine changes in representation of women among first authors of original research published in high impact general medical journals from 1994 to 2014 and investigate differences between journals. Design Observational study. Study sample All original research articles published in Annals of Internal Medicine , Archives of Internal Medicine, The BMJ, JAMA, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) for one issue every alternate month from February 1994 to June 2014. Main exposures Time and journal of publication. Main outcome measures Prevalence of female first authorship and its adjusted association with time of publication and journal, assessed using a multivariable logistic regression model that accounted for number of authors, study type and specialty/topic, continent where the study was conducted, and the interactions between journal and time of publication, study type, and continent. Estimates from this model were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios against the mean across the six journals, with 95% confidence intervals and P values to describe the associations of interest. Results The gender of the first author was determined for 3758 of the 3860 articles considered; 1273 (34%) were women. After adjustment, female first authorship increased significantly from 27% in 1994 to 37% in 2014 (P NEJM seemed to follow a different pattern, with female first authorship decreasing; it also seemed to decline in recent years in The BMJ but started substantially higher (approximately 40%), and The BMJ had the highest total proportion of female first authors. Compared with the mean across all six journals, first authors were significantly less likely to be female in the NEJM (adjusted odds ratio 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.53 to 0.89) and significantly more likely to be female in The BMJ (1.30, 1.01 to 1.66) over the study period. Conclusions The representation of women among first authors of original research in high impact general medical journals was significantly higher in 2014 than 20 years ago, but it has plateaued in recent years and has declined in some journals. These results, along with the significant differences seen between journals, suggest that underrepresentation of research by women in high impact journals is still an important concern. The underlying causes need to be investigated to help to identify practices and strategies to increase women’s influence on and contributions to the evidence that will determine future healthcare policies and standards of clinical practice.
350 citations
19 Aug 2020
244 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined women's experiences regarding the perceived barriers to leadership in science and technology (ST) faculties in UK universities and found that women struggle to navigate their careers.
Abstract: There is growing concern regarding the lack of women in senior positions in science and technology (ST) in United Kingdom (UK) universities. Previous research has enhanced our understanding of the challenges women in academia face to progress their careers. In contrast, relatively little is known as to why so few women reach leadership positions in ST. This article reports on research to examine women's experiences regarding the perceived barriers to leadership in ST faculties in UK universities. Using in-depth interviews the authors explore personal narratives to highlight the perceived barriers to career advancement. Findings report on the gendered nature of ST faculties and how women struggle to navigate their careers. The investigation illustrates the effect of organisational influences such as temporary work arrangements, male-dominated networks, intimidation and harassment, as well as individual influences such as lack of confidence.
231 citations
TL;DR: In this article, household and district-level determinants of primary school enrollment were studied for 220,000 children in 340 districts of 30 developing countries using multilevel analysis and interaction analysis showed that many effects of household-level factors depend on the context in which the household is living.
199 citations