Rebuilding the Academy: Strategies for supporting academic mothers during the COVID-19

29 The issues mothers face in the academy have been discussed for decades. Routinely, new studies 30 report significant differences between women and men at comparable career stages with respect 31 to salary, service demands, publications, grant submissions, and overall funding rates. The 32 COVID-19 pandemic is further exposing these inequalities as women scientists who are 33 parenting while also engaging in a combination of academic related duties are falling further 34 behind. COVID-19 is shaking the very foundations of our society and laying bare the many 35 inequalities that defined our pre-COVID world. We can solve these inequities by investing 36 strategically in creative solutions, thereby making the most of women’s contributions to 37 scientific endeavors. Here we describe strategies that would make the academy more equitable 38 for working mothers now and into the future. Importantly, while the data are clear that mothers 39 are being disproportionally impacted by COVID-19, many groups could benefit from these same 40 ideas. Now is the time to act. Rather than rebuilding what we once knew, let us be the architects 41 of a new world. 42 Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 26 September 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202009.0632.v1

ABSTRACT: 29 The issues mothers face in the academy have been discussed for decades. Routinely, new studies 30 report significant differences between women and men at comparable career stages with respect 31 to salary, service demands, publications, grant submissions, and overall funding rates. The 32 COVID-19 pandemic is further exposing these inequalities as women scientists who are 33 parenting while also engaging in a combination of academic related duties are falling further 34 behind. COVID-19 is shaking the very foundations of our society and laying bare the many 35 inequalities that defined our pre-COVID world. We can solve these inequities by investing 36 strategically in creative solutions, thereby making the most of women's contributions to 37 scientific endeavors. Here we describe strategies that would make the academy more equitable 38 for working mothers now and into the future. Importantly, while the data are clear that mothers 39 are being disproportionally impacted by COVID-19, many groups could benefit from these same  Many of our suggestions will require a monetary commitment; during times of increasing 84 financial uncertainty, it may appear unwise to re-allocate funding in this way. However, 85 scientists and academics have "talked" for a longtime about how to stop the "leaky pipeline" (5). 86 Women already bear the penalty of the rigid, unchanging incentive and evaluation practices of 87 academia. COVID-19 is only compounding structural issues that already exist. Yet, few of us are 88 (yet) in positions of power to change this system that we did not create. Adding more women to 89 the system is not enough. We need those in power to acknowledge these issues and commit

96
Before we discuss targeted strategies we highlight a universal need -everyone should be fighting 97 for: affordable, high-quality, child care. Research has shown that when high quality daycare is should also prioritize reopening in safe manners including high frequencies of COVID-19 testing 103 and sanitization practices. These resources should be made available to faculty, staff, postdocs, 104 and graduate students, the latter of which are facing the same challenges on much lower salaries. 105 We stress that all of us -regardless of academic position-can help push for this goal and, those 106 in power, should be working tirelessly to make this happen. The first step to supporting mentees who become or are parents happens long before they share 111 their exciting news or join your laboratory -make it clear that you are wholly supportive of 112 all personal choices and lifestyles, including family units with or without children, and that 113 you not only value but also strive to achieve a healthy work-life teeter-totter (9). If you are 114 an academic mother, there is no better example for your mentees than learning from your 115 experiences. Being a good mentor means listening to your mentees and supporting their goals, 116 and this becomes increasingly true when your mentees become parents. Your support can be 117 especially important when they first tell you they are expecting. Your initial reaction to this news 118 sets the stage for how they will feel asking for what they need throughout their pregnancy, 119 maternity leave, and return to campus. This is an emotional conversation even without the weekly meetings that cover topics ranging from data analysis and manuscript revision to mental 123 health and self-care.

125
Initiating discussions with your mentees about developing flexible timelines for both short-126 (e.g., lab work) and long-(e.g., graduation date) term goals in such a way that planning is         The sudden COVID-19 shift to virtual meetings has allowed many societies to see the benefits      In an academic culture of 'publish or perish' one main metric of scientific evaluation is research 298 output in the form of peer-reviewed papers. Within the first few weeks of this pandemic, 299 manuscript submissions by female researchers to preprint servers across disciplines dropped 300 significantly or increased less than their male colleagues (23, 25, 26). This trend was also 301 apparent for women-led medical studies related to the pandemic itself (27, 28). Due to the time-302 lag of the publishing process from preprint to peer-reviewed articles, we expect that these 303 disparities will further increase throughout the course and the aftermath of the pandemic.

304
Publishers and editors are at the center of the publishing machinery and have an opportunity to 305 counterbalance these long-term detrimental effects on equitable science. Measures already being 306 considered include expediting submissions from self-identified women, by prioritizing them 307 during the peer-review process (29). During the COVID-19 pandemic many journals have 308 extended their deadlines to return reviews and to perform revisions -particularly decreasing the 309 pressure on working mothers. We advocate to adopt this practice more broadly across journals 310 and to continue offering extended deadlines for the foreseeable future.  Analogous to the advice for Colleges and Universities, nuanced approaches will be needed to 327 address the variable impacts of COVID-19 on the community, and on academic mothers in 328 particular who, even before the pandemic, were submitting fewer grants than their male 329 colleagues (33). Facilitating no-cost-extensions is a first step, but it is likely that multi-year 330 extensions will be needed. We recommend that agencies consider what steps can be taken to 331 reduce the paperwork burden associated with sequential applications, which are likely to   However, data do not solve problems. We need actionable solutions. Here we described a series 358 of strategies across spheres of influence that can help reduce the burden of this global pandemic 359 on mothers in science. As working mothers, we cannot solve this problem or implement these 360 solutions alone. We implore our universities, societies, and scientific leaders to carefully consider where and when they could leverage their power to implement the solutions we have 362 presented here. Importantly, we urge leaders not to forgo action simply because a solution did 363 not work before. Such a failure could be due to "false fails" -i.e., the strategy was not 364 implemented correctly, for long enough, at the right time, etc. (Table 1). Ultimately, science and 365 our world will benefit when there is equity for women and mothers.

367
Acknowledgements: 368 We thank the following individuals for reviewing earlier versions of this manuscript: Pete 369 Buston, Kim McCall, and Richard Primack (Boston University) and Pete Girguis (Harvard 370 University). We thank our families for providing motivation and support. We thank all womxn 371 academics who helped forge the paths we now tread. to maintain research productivity and teaching excellence, often without outside assistance. Notably, 491 research suggests that even in dual career households, mothers often perform a greater proportion of child 492 care and household duties when compared to fathers (1, 2) and, while new parents are more likely to leave 493 full-time STEM jobs than their childless peers, new mothers are twice as likely to leave STEM as new 494 fathers (3).

496
The current childcare and schooling situation is especially hard on pre-tenure mothers who struggle to 497 bolster their scientific productivity while also remaining engaged with their family. That said, mothers at 498 all career levels with children or elders at home may be disproportionately affected by policies associated 499 with COVID-19. We fear an increase in tenure denials related to COVID-19, as well as a decrease in 500 promotions to Full Professor, thereby continuing to limit the number of women advancing into leadership 501 positions within the academic pipeline (4-6). Of course, delays in career advancement also apply to those 502 not on the tenure track and may be especially difficult for academic mothers in adjunct or lecturer 503 positions, which are more likely to be in jeopardy due to the financial ramifications of COVID-19. 504 505 Consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on research for academic mothers 506 507 Although the general consequences of COVID-19 on academia are substantial and have been discussed in 508 detail (e.g.,(7)), BES research programs may be especially impacted due to an emphasis on long-term 509 datasets, fieldwork, and large-scale laboratory and field experiments that require teamwork. Of course, 510 the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on research productivity will be largely dependent on the type of 511 research conducted in each lab and each investigator's personal responsibilities. The effects of lab 512 shutdowns are especially difficult for empirical or experimentally-focused researchers. These impacts are 513 even more severe for those labs conducting research that requires fieldwork, which has become largely 514 intractable during the pandemic due to loss of access to field sites, cancelation and/or bans of domestic 515 and international travel, and limitations on the number of field researchers due to physical distancing 516 requirements. The long-term consequences of delayed/canceled field seasons are more likely to 517 negatively influence mothers due to childcare responsibilities. As travel and field sites reopen, mothers 518 without access to childcare will need to prioritize childcare responsibilities and will remain unable to 519 travel, ultimately extending the consequences of COVID-19. Even as childcare facilities reopen in their 520 region, it may be too risky to dedicate time to planning and conducting field work -especially at remote 521 locations -due to fears of future campus or field site shutdowns, which would again render fieldwork 522 impossible and potentially make community and/or family members sick. 523 524 Junior members of the research community, which are more likely to be women (8), will be hit hardest 525 because projects and graduate students are more likely to be in early phases. As a consequence, junior 526 investigators are often left focusing on literature reviews or completing legacy datasets from their 527 previous positions. In addition, because many women choose to wait to start their family until after they 528 find a permanent academic position (5), these consequences are again more likely to have a larger impact 529 on academic mothers. Lastly, physical distancing restrictions have limited the number of researchers in 530 labs and will therefore impose greater limitations on PIs with small lab spaces, which are again most 531 likely to be female early-career PIs (9). 532 533 Publications are the currency in academia; however, the publication process itself has experienced 534 upheaval due to COVID-19 (10-13). In general, the process has slowed significantly, from obtaining 535 reviews to receiving proofs, which decreases publication rates and has implications for resulting citation 536 rates. In addition, editors are reporting surges in manuscript submission that are disproportionately led by 537 male authors (10, 14), and this influx in submissions is likely to lead to increased competition for already 538 limited space in journals. While many academic mothers have been able to perform some level of analysis 539 and manuscript drafting during the pandemic, the pace of publication and subsequent citation rates will 540 inevitably experience greater lag times. This will only be compounded in fields that require multiple year 541 data sets or extensive fieldwork. Child rearing during this global pandemic has left academic mothers 542 with even smaller units of time, which makes deep intellectual thought and writing, which are required for 543 both publications and grants, next to impossible. These sorts of hurdles have specifically left mothers 544 publishing significantly less than their colleagues without children (15).

546
The abrupt transition to online teaching in spring 2020 presented a new challenge for all academics. 547 These challenges were especially felt by women caring for young children and/or leading the at-home 548 learning requirements for children. Now, many institutions are moving to a hybrid model of teaching for 549 fall, essentially doubling the course preparation required at a time when many women remain child 550 caregivers at home. Similarly, women graduate students with childcare responsibilities and who serve as 551 teaching assistants (common practice in the BES field) now have to spend more time re-developing 552 course materials to complement online learning needs, which detracts from time spent on their 553 dissertations.

555
Grant deadlines have not been significantly altered and we anticipate significant changes may be made to 556 federal funding rates and priorities as a result of the pandemic and associated economic fallout. It seems 557 inevitable that institutional internal grants will be slashed with impending budget cuts, and likely that 558 state and federal grant agencies will be restricting funds in order to deal with financial repercussions of 559 COVID-19. While these cuts will affect all academics, academic mothers who are also balancing 560 childcare responsibilities will not have the bandwidth to submit grants in hopes of getting funded before 561 these looming COVID-19 cuts are made. These issues are compounded by the fact that women at all 562 career stages were already applying for grants at lower rates (8). Because the grant review cycle takes 563 approximately 6 months, missing deadlines now means less future funding. This decrease in grant 564 applications by mothers will perpetuate the impacts of the pandemic for years to come. For some, it may 565 result in insufficient funding to continue in science altogether. 566 567 Travel restrictions and the associated loss of networking opportunities has implications for initiating 568 collaborations, demonstrating research productivity, and connecting with potential external review 569 evaluators. A massive number of in-person networking opportunities have evaporated through cancelled 570 regional, national, and international meetings and seminar invitations, and reduced numbers of seminar 571 speakers visiting campuses. By necessity, many of these opportunities have moved to an online format. 572 Ironically, many organizations are touting this as an opportunity for increased inclusion, under the 573 auspices that online events can be attended by any and all who are interested. That presumption is not 574 true, as women at home who have childcare obligations are hindered in participating because they may 575 not have the physical space or time to do participate in professional activities. Further, many women feel 576 that they also do not have the mental and emotional space to prepare and present a research seminar under 577 the current circumstances. Declining these opportunities decidedly impacts their careers as networking is 578 a principle means of generating career opportunities such as new collaborations and job offers. Plus, the 579 connections made during these visits often result in offers of reviewers of promotion and tenure packets, 580 thereby potentially limiting the dissemination and recognition of early career scientists. Finally, annual 581 merit review as well as tenure and promotion packages keep track of these seminars as a way to assess 582 how faculty are regarded in their field. 583 584 Lastly, the long-term effects on the productivity and mental health of graduate student mothers remain 585 unclear. While substantial focus is understandably being given to late-career Ph.D. students and 586 postdoctoral researchers facing immediate funding and job market challenges, the younger cohorts must 587 also be considered. For some postdocs and graduate students, child rearing has now been compounded on 588 top of these already leaky stages in the academic pipeline (16) that require intense levels of productivity. 589 Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to make an already leaky pipeline burst, especially 590 when it comes to academic mothers. People in positions of power now have the opportunity and 591 responsibility to ensure that this does not occur. 592