Being a Female Academic During the Pandemic: Lecturer, Teacher, Mother, Scholar and More

Year 2023, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 173 - 193, 30.06.2023

Canan Laçin Şimşek , Zeliha Demir Kaymak , Canan Sola Özgüç

https://doi.org/10.51535/tell.1234110

Cited By: 1

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the experiences of female academics with children regarding distance learning and working from home during the pandemic, their problems, gains, and opinions about the impacts of being a woman on their experiences within this process. To this end, the study adopted the qualitative research method of phenomenological design. Interviews were conducted with 11 participants with children working at the same university offering courses by means of distance learning during the pandemic. The data were examined through content analysis. The participants expressed that they encountered a variety of problems particularly due to being a woman. They stated that they assumed many different roles and struggled to carry out the responsibilities. Almost all participants indicated a significant decline in the volume of academic studies, considering the excessive amount of responsibilities assumed by women and the lack of sharing the workload at home. The present study is expected to help female academics realize that these problems are not unique to them, providing them with a source of motivation.

Keywords

Covid 19, Distance education, Female academics, Remote working.

References

• Andersen, J. P., Nielsen, M. W., Simone, N. L., Lewiss, R. and Jagsi, R. (2020) ‘COVID-19 medical papers have fewer women first authors than expected’, ELife, 9: e58807, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58807
• Andrew, A., Cattan, S., Dias, M. C., Farquharson, C., Kraftman, L., Krutikova, S., Phimister, A. and Sevilla, A.(2020) ‘How are mothers and fathers balancing work and family under lockdown?’, Institude for Fiscal Studies, https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/BN290-Mothers-and-fathers-balancing-work-and-life-under-lockdown.pdf
• Ashencaen Crabtree, S., Esteves, L. and Hemingway, A. (2020) ‘A ‘new (ab) normal’?: Scrutinising the work-life balance of academics under lockdown’, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 1-15, https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2020.1853687
• Altınoluk, D. (2018). ‘Kadın olmak mi, akademisyen olmak mi? : İşte bütün mesele bu” Fe Dergi, 10(1), 58-66. https://doi.org/10.1501/Fe0001_0000000196
• Basilaia, G. and Kvavadze, D. (2020) ‘Transition to online education in schools during a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Georgia’, Pedagogical Research, 5(4). https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7937
• Bergdahl, N. and Nouri, J. (2020) ‘Covid-19 and crisis-prompted distance education in Sweden’, Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10758-020-09470-6
• Bircan, H.M. & Erdogmus, N. (2020). ‘Kadın akademisyenlerin kariyer kimliği inşası: Araştırma yapmak isteyen anne öğretim üyesi’. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, (1), 177-206, https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2020-0087
• Boncori, I. (2020) ‘The Never‐ending Shift: A feminist reflection on living and organizing academic lives during the coronavirus pandemic’, Gender, Work & Organization, 27(5):pp. 677-682. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12451
• Collins, C., Landivar, L. C., Ruppanner, L. And Scarborough, W. J. (2021) ‘COVID-19 and the gender gap in work hours’, Gender, Work and Organization, 28(S1):101–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12506
• Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches, London: Sage Publications, Inc.
• Cui, R., Ding, H., and Zhu, F. (2020) ‘Gender inequality in research productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic’, arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.10194.
• Çelebi, E. (2020) Pandemi sürecinin akademisyenler üzerindeki toplumsal cinsiyet temelli etkileri. Feminist Pencere, https://www.catlakzemin.com/pandemi-surecinin-akademisyenler-uzerindeki-toplumsal-cinsiyet-temelli-etkileri/
• de Paz, C., Muller, M., Munoz Boudet, A. M., and Gaddis, I. (2020) Gender dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33622
• Deryugina, T., Shurchkov, O., and Stearns, J. E. (2021) Covid-19 disruptions disproportionately affect female academics (No. w28360), National Bureau of Economic Research.
• Gabster, B. P., van Daalen, K., Dhatt, R. and Barry, M. (2020) ‘Challenges for the female academic during the COVID-19 pandemic’, The Lancet, 395(10242), 1968-1970, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31412-4
• Gallardo, M. (2021) ‘Does maternity affect women’s careers? Perceptions of working mothers in academia’, Educación XX1, 24(1), 405-428.
• Gans, J. (2020) ‘How I wrote and published a book about the economics of coronavirus in a month’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/how-i-wrote-and-published-a-book-about-the-economics-of-coronavirus-in-a-month-137489
• Godlee, F. (2020) ‘Covid-19: Why we still need more women in academia’, BMJ 2020;371:m4161, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4161
• Halifeoğlu, M. (2020). ‘Habitus of academy and its gender: female academics’. The Journal of International Civilization Studies, 5(2), 167-181.
• Ham, S. (2021) ‘Explaining Gender Gaps in the South Korean Labor Market During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Feminist Economics, 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2021.1876902
• Hebebci, M. T., Bertiz, Y. And Alan, S. (2020) ‘Investigation of views of students and teachers on distance education practices during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic’, International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), 4(4), 267-282.
• Ipsos. Mori. (2020) ‘International Women's Day 2020: Close to three in ten men say sexual jokes or stories at work are acceptable’, https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/international-womens-day-2020-close-threeten-men-say-sexual-jokes-or-stories-work-are-acceptable
• İnce, E. Y., Kabul, A. And Diler, İ. (2020) ‘Distance education in higher education in the COVID-19 pandemic process: A case of Isparta Applied Sciences University’, International Journal of Technology in Education and Science (IJTES), 4(4), 343-351.
• King, M. M. and Frederickson, S. C. (2021) ‘The Pandemic Penalty: The gendered effects of COVID-19 on scientific productivity’, https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8hp7m/
• Kitchener, C. (2020) ‘Women academics seem to be submitting fewer papers during coronavirus. ‘Never seen anything like it,’ says one editor’, The Lily, https://www.thelily.com/women-academics-seem-to-be-submitting-fewer- papers-during-coronavirus-never-seen-anything-like-it-says-one-editor/
• Krukowski, R. A., Jagsi, R. and Cardel, M. I. (2021) ‘Academic Productivity Differences by Gender and Child Age in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics,and Medicine Faculty During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Journal of Women Health, 30(3), 341-347.
• Kurnaz, E. and Serçemeli, M. (2020) ‘Covıd-19 Pandemi Döneminde Akademisyenlerin Uzaktan Eğitim ve Uzaktan Muhasebe Eğitimine Yönelik Bakış Açıları Üzerine Bir Araş’, Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Akademi Dergisi, (3), 262-288.
• Lester, K. and Lacey, A. (2020) Coronavirus is sending British society back to the 1950s for many women, www.soundhealthandlastingwealth.com/health-news/coronavirus-is-sending-british-society-back-to-the-1950s-for-many-women/
• Lutter, M. And Schröder, M. (2020) ‘Is there a motherhood penalty in academia? The gendered effect of children on academic publications’, European Sociological Review, 36(3), 442–459.
• Malisch, J. L., Harris, B. N., Sherrer, S. M., Lewis, K. A., Shepherd, S. L., McCarthy, P. C., ... and Deitloff, J. (2020) ‘Opinion: In the wake of COVID-19, academia needs new solutions to ensure gender equity’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(27), 15378-15381.
• Marek, M. W., Chew, C. S. And Wu, W. C. V. (2021) ‘Teacher experiences in converting classes to distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic’, International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET), 19(1): 40-60.
• Mavin, S. and Yusupova, M. (2020) ‘Gendered experiences of leading and managing through COVID-19: patriarchy and precarity’, Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol. 35 (7/8), 737-744. DOI 10.1108/GM-09-2020-0274
• McDermott, M. (2020) ‘Learning from the Experiences of Mothers of School-Aged Children on Tenure Track during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic’, Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (2020), https://jarm.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jarm/article/view/40618/36789
• Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (2015) Nitel veri analizi: Genişletilmiş bir kaynak kitap (1. Baskı), trans. ed. S. Akbaba Altun ve A. Ersoy, Ankara: Pagem Akademi.
• Minello, A. (2020) ‘The pandemic and the female academic’, Nature, https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01135-9
• Nash, M. and Churchill, B. (2020) ‘Caring during COVID‐19: A gendered analysis of Australian university responses to managing remote working and caring responsibilities’, Gender, Work & Organization, 27(5), 833-846.
• Oleschuk, M. (2020) ‘Gender equity considerations for tenure and promotion during COVID‐19’, Canadian Review of Sociology, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fcars.12295
• Özer, M. (2020) Covid-19 Salgını Sonrası Dünyada Eğitim, https://www.meb.gov.tr/covid-19-salgini-sonrasi-dunyada-egitim/haber/20936/tr .
• Petts, R. J., Carlson, D. L. And Pepin, J. R. (2020) ‘A Gendered Pandemic: Childcare, Homeschooling, and Parents’ Employment During COVID‐19’, Gender, Work & Organization, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12614
• Pinho-Gomes, A. C., Peters, S., Thompson, K., Hockham, C., Ripullone, K., Woodward, M. And Carcel, C. (2020) ‘Where are the women? Gender inequalities in COVID-19 research authorship’, BMJ Global Health, 5(7), e002922.
• Quak, E., Girault, G., Thenint, M. A., Weyts, K., Lequesne, J. And Lasnon, C. (2021) ‘Author Gender Inequality in Medical Imaging Journals and the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Radiology, 204417, https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2021204417
• Rebecca A. Krukowski, Reshma Jagsi, and Michelle I. Cardel. (2020) ‘Academic Productivity Differences by Gender and Child Age in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine Faculty During the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Journal of Women’s Health, https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8710
• Sindiani, A. M., Obeidat, N., Alshdaifat, E., Elsalem, L., Alwani, M. M., Rawashdeh, H., ... and Tawalbeh, L. I. (2020) ‘Distance education during the COVID-19 outbreak: A cross-sectional study among medical students in North of Jordan’, Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 59, 186-194.
• Stadnyk, T. and Black, K. (2020) ‘Lost ground: Female academics face an uphill battle in post‐pandemic world’, Hydrological Processes, https://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2Fhyp.13803
• Van Manen, M. (2007) ‘Phenomenology of practice’, Phenomenology & Practice, 1(1), 11-30, https://doi.org/10.29173/pandpr19803.
• Whiley, L. A., Sayer, H. and Juanchich, M. (2020) ‘Motherhood and Guilt in a Pandemic: Negotiating the ‘New’Normal with a Feminist Identity’, Gender, Work & Organization, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12613
• Yıldırım, A., and Şimşek, H. (2005) Sosyal bilimlerde nitel araştırma yöntemleri. [Qualitative design in social sciences] Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık.
• Yıldırım Şahin, E. (2021). ‘Pandemi sürecinin kadin üniversite öğrencileri üzerindeki etkileri ve uygulanan uzaktan eğitim sürecinde yaşadiklari sorunlar’. Uluslararası Toplum Araştırmaları Dergisi (OPUS), 17 (Pandemi Özel Sayı), 3245-3275. https://doi.org/ 10.26466/opus.828394.
• Yildirim, T. M., & Eslen‐Ziya, H. (2021) ‘The differential impact of COVID‐19 on the work conditions of women and men academics during the lockdown’, Gender, Work & Organization, 28, 243-249, https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12529