Early this week, I read an article for one of my classes about the workload and burnout of academic women, “The University Cannot Love You” (Gray, 2021). This article reviews the unique challenges many academic women face in balancing their academic life and family life, especially during the COVID pandemic. As is well known, women continue to bear mainly the responsibilities of caring for children and domestic chores. Academic women are not the exception; they carry all these responsibilities along with their academic responsibilities (Johnson et al., 2021).
As COVID-19 lockdowns were issued and school children returned home to participate in online learning, women assumed the extra responsibility of supervising their kids' learning. Due to these extra family responsibilities, many women scholars had less time to participate in research projects and write articles than their counterparts. As stated by Myers et al., (2020) this difficult situation faced by female researchers “could have important short- and longer-term effects on their careers, which institution leaders and funders need to address carefully” (p.880).
However, as Gray (2021) stated, universities have fallen short of providing the support that women need. Institutions should value the care that women provide and reward them. These institutions should enact policies that enhance equity across the academic career path. Women who choose to start their families should receive more support from their institutions, such as providing more high-quality child care options, increasing paid parental leave, and implementing new ways to evaluate candidates for promotion (Reese et al., 2021). Another solutions have been proposed. For instance, Gray (2021) called higher education institutions to count the care that women provide to children as institutional service or credited teaching time. This proposed solution could be a good way to support women in academic settings.
The COVID pandemic has revealed and exacerbated many inequalities,
If we do not want to perpetuate these inequalities, now is the time to take action and make changes. We need to learn from the lessons that this pandemic has left us and take the unique opportunity we have to make changes to emerge with a stronger and more equitable academic community.
I also found this article very eye-opening and it comforted me to know that I was not alone in the struggles I had as a mom and educator during Covid.
Nice summation of the article, Gloria. Perhaps as more women are placed in administrative roles where they can effect change, institutions will be more open to valuing the care that women provide (which care, in many cases, enable men to do "more" since they have to “care” less).