Our results suggest that significant efforts must be made by academic institutions to acknowledge and value the childcare responsibilities of academics who mother and to create solutions that fully address the challenges they face in meeting the academic expectations and requirements that largely remain unmodified despite the pandemic. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed three major themes: (1) inability to meet institutional expectations (2) juggling work and family life and (3) proposed solutions. Results of our research suggest that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic the pressure on academics who mother is immense. Twenty participants were then interviewed via phone or Zoom to explore more deeply the experiences of academics who mother. From June to August 2020,131 female-identified academics who mother were recruited via a Facebook group, Academic Mamas, and participated in our online survey. We collected data via an online survey and, subsequently, by conducting qualitative interviews with a sub-sample of participants. The aim of the study is to document how academics who mother have reorganized work and childcare since the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States, how those shifts have affected their academic productivity, and solutions proposed by academics living these experiences. (2021). Impacts of the COVID‐19 Pandemic on the Productivity of Academics who Mother. The policies and practices that impact on the ability of women to secure research funding must be reviewed and addressed with urgency for the benefit of the research community as a whole.
Lack of freedom to travel, and thus to network or attend conferences can result in exclusion from multi-national networks and the ability of women to demonstrate an international profile. The focus on track record in grant review, biased language used in evaluation materials and unconscious biases on the part of reviewers further impact differentially on women. These range from the impact of taking maternity leave, to grant deadlines falling during or shortly after school holidays and the requirement to travel for interviews. Systematic barriers exist at many levels, particularly for parents and carers. Institutional barriers such as women carrying a heavier burden of teaching and academic citizenship, and lack of support, mentoring and visible role models impact on women’s success in securing research funding. This review critically evaluates some of the barriers and biases women face in the process of applying for research funding in the UK. The common explanations given that women have to apply for more and more often do not sufficiently explain the gender disparities in research funding.
Women apply less often and for lower amounts of funding, and are less successful than male colleagues (UK Research and Innovation, 2018).
Research, and the funding that enables research, is a critical point of career progression. In the UK, women are underrepresented at the highest levels of academia in all subjects but Nursing (Advance HE, 2018). Jebsen, Julie Marie Abbott, Cathy Oliver, Rachel Ochu, Erinma Jayasinghe, Izzy Gauchotte-Lindsay, Caroline (2019). A Review of Barriers Women Face in Research Funding Processes in the UK.