Resources on Faculty and Work Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic

National Data on Disparate Impacts Point to Future Challenges

Impact on Time

The pandemic has impacted how all faculty spend their time, but female faculty are losing more time for research and writing than their male peers. The decrease in time available for scholarship is even more pronounced for women in STEM, particularly those caring for school-aged children. Faculty of color and women are also contributing more service and support for students.

57% of women faculty (compared to 43% of men) report being busier now than before the pandemic.

Bar graph depicting research by Deryugina et al in 2021 on changes in how time was spent among faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveyed male faculty lost an average of 42 minutes per day, while female faculty lost an average of 61 minutes per day. Male faculty spent an increase, on average, of 53 minutes per day on childcare, while female faculty spent an increase, on average, of 82 minutes per day on childcare.

Women report losing nearly twice as much time per day for research compared to men. Women also spend significantly more time on childcare than men (Deryugina et al., 2021).

Impacts on Scholarship

Publication

Women are submitting fewer pre-prints, manuscripts, and first author manuscripts since the pandemic began.
Journal editors note more challenges identifying reviewers, and authors requesting more extensions, slowing the publication process.

Access to Mentoring and Scientific Community

Cancellation of conferences and meetings in immediate wake of pandemic reduced opportunities.
Virtual conferences increased participation but professional networking remains challenging, particularly for early career scholars.
Loss of "face-time" in departments has reduced opportunities for informal and formal faculty mentoring and professional development.

Access to Research Resources

A minority of scholars report little or no disruption to their research; more men report having increased time for scholarship while working from home.
STEM scholars report persistent challenges in fully accessing labs, while travel restrictions have broader, negative impacts for field scientists and international faculty, students, and postdocs.
Humanities scholars report challenges to accessing documents, performing/visual arts studios and performing arts venues, while social scientists have faced challenges collecting data in lab and field settings.

"We are all in the same storm, but not in the same boat."

—Vincent-Lamarre et al. (2020)

Prepared by Stephanie A. Goodwin, PhD, for Villanova University VISIBLE NSF ADVANCE #1824237