This Month in Gender Equity: May 2020
We return this month with our series that recaps our favorite (or least favorite) moments in gender equity from news, media, and long reads all over the internet. You’ll see installments for This Month in Gender Equity one week each month. If you have ideas or contributions, leave a comment or tweet at us!
No Room of One’s Own: Early Journal Submission Data Suggest COVID-19 is Taking Women’s Research Productivity
Publications like Forbes and the Chronicle of Higher Education continue to publish listicles about the catastrophic consequences of COVID-19 for universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education. But few of those lists address the dramatic gender inequities that are becoming apparent across aspects of academic life. At least three journals have so far published findings suggesting that submissions from women have suffered since the onset of the pandemic. The findings break down as follows:
In Comparative Political Studies, submissions overall are up but the women’s submissions have not increased. The increase was driven entirely by men.
In the American Journal of Political Science, a slightly larger percentage of submitting authors are women compared to the last three years. However, women have recently submitted fewer solo-authored pieces, indicating that they “have less time to submit their own work than men do amid the crisis.”
In the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, the deputy editor simply said she has received negligible submissions from women, which she also characterizes as unprecedented.
There is largely consensus as to the causes of these differential submission rates: women are responsible for the bulk of care responsibilities. This is likely to mean both care (and, currently, educational tasks) for children and care for sick or elderly household members. The costs to women of these additional—and time- and energy-intensive—tasks are likely to extend well into the future. Many institutions have extended tenure clocks in order to ease pressure on early-career academics. But, in the same way that parental and family leave policies result in varied productivity by gender, these clock extensions are likely to do the same. We plan to discuss this more on the blog in weeks to come, but consider reading some of the following:
Lily News writer Caroline Kitchener’s Twitter thread, which captures findings from her interviews with women academics
The Lily News story on women’s submissions to academic journals
The editors of the American Journal of Political Science summarized their findings
How Can I Help Women Today?
Though this is a very difficult time, it is also a time for many to count their blessings. If you are one of those who is lucky enough to have, well, enough, this is a great time to ask how you can reach out to engage in your community virtually to help others. This blog article is a wonderful list of ways that you can help out others, particularly women, who are struggling with financial or food insecurity. As we have talked about in other blogs, women are especially susceptible to financial and food insecurity and many are bearing a heavier than usual responsibility in childcare, while trying to work from home or as essential workers. If you are safe, healthy, and cared for, pay it forward. Tip extra, pay your regular house cleaner even if she isn’t coming, and find ways to get involved in your community. If you are a supervisor, be flexible and accommodating with your workers as they navigate this new landscape. One day, this will be over. We will go back to work, to school, to our favorite restaurants. But people will long remember the way that they were treated by their supervisors and the ways that their communities rose up to help them. Today is a great day to be part of a good memory for someone.
-Lauren and Amy