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Six weeks into widespread self-quarantine, editors of academic journals have started noticing a trend: Women — who (ofc) shoulder more family responsibility — seem to be submitting fewer papers than usual. There is some evidence that men are submitting *more.* (a thread)
This could have a major impact on the careers of women in academia, esp women going up for tenure. One expert told me: “We don’t want a committee to look at the outlier productivity of, say, a white hetero man with a spouse at home and say, ‘Well, this person managed it.’”
Men w/ kids are affected, too. But it's useful to look at stop-the-clock tenure policies, which allow parents to delay tenure for 1 yr when they have kids: Women tend to use the time at home primarily/ exclusively for child care. Men “find a way” to do more academic work.
I talked to three female academics who are delaying career goals because they need to take care of their kids during coronavirus.
. @thePhDandMe (2 kids at home, ages 4 & 9) was up for tenure in September, and decided to delay a year. My “fear is just, does this look bad? We understand what a typical timeline looks like. How does it look to ask for an extension?”
. @EricaLWilliams7 (2 kids at home, ages 4 & 17) hoped to become a full professor in the next 2-3 years. She hasn’t been able to touch either book project she’ll need to complete to reach that goal.
. @einatlev1 (1 daughter at home, age 7) is up for tenure this fall. She won’t be able to finish the 5 papers her review board said were necessary. “They might look at [my portfolio] and think, ‘You were home for four months, why weren’t you writing?’”
. @einatlev1 recently heard from a male colleague, who began his career around the same time she did. He also has young kids, but his wife stays at home. “On the bright side of things,” he wrote of his time in self-quarantine, “this gives me time to concentrate on writing.”
To quote Einat: “Sigh & Scream.” https://twitter.com/einatlev1/status/1252034484100308992
