Preprint Essay Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Rebuilding the Academy: Strategies for Supporting Academic Mothers during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and Beyond

Version 1 : Received: 25 September 2020 / Approved: 26 September 2020 / Online: 26 September 2020 (13:08:55 CEST)

How to cite: Fulweiler, R.W.; Davies, S.W.; Biddle, J.F.; Burgin, A.J.; Cooperdock, E.H.; Hanley, T.C.; Kenkel, C.; Marcarelli, A.M.; Matassa, C.M.; Santiago-Vazquez, L.Z.; Traylor-Knowles, N.; Ziegler, M. Rebuilding the Academy: Strategies for Supporting Academic Mothers during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and Beyond. Preprints 2020, 2020090632. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202009.0632.v1 Fulweiler, R.W.; Davies, S.W.; Biddle, J.F.; Burgin, A.J.; Cooperdock, E.H.; Hanley, T.C.; Kenkel, C.; Marcarelli, A.M.; Matassa, C.M.; Santiago-Vazquez, L.Z.; Traylor-Knowles, N.; Ziegler, M. Rebuilding the Academy: Strategies for Supporting Academic Mothers during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and Beyond. Preprints 2020, 2020090632. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202009.0632.v1

Abstract

The issues mothers face in the academy have been discussed for decades. Routinely, new studies report significant differences between women and men at comparable career stages with respect to salary, service demands, publications, grant submissions, and overall funding rates. The COVID-19 pandemic is further exposing these inequalities as women scientists who are parenting while also engaging in a combination of academic related duties are falling further behind. COVID-19 is shaking the very foundations of our society and laying bare the many inequalities that defined our pre-COVID world. We can solve these inequities by investing strategically in creative solutions, thereby making the most of women’s contributions to scientific endeavors. Here we describe strategies that would make the academy more equitable for working mothers now and into the future. Importantly, while the data are clear that mothers are being disproportionally impacted by COVID-19, many groups could benefit from these same ideas. Now is the time to act. Rather than rebuilding what we once knew, let us be the architects of a new world.

Keywords

academic; mothers; COVID-19; pandemic; leaky pipeline

Subject

Social Sciences, Sociology

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