Academic Life Experiences of Early Career Female Academics during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aims to find out the academic life experiences of early career female academics during the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey. The study group consisted of 13 female academics working from home with their spouses. The interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data collected through semi-structured telephone interviews. The findings were clustered under two main themes: the life before the pandemic, and academic life during the pandemic. The main theme of academic life during the pandemic consisted of the following sub-themes: adaptation problem, withdrawal from academic life, excessive workload interfering academic productivity, and integration of academic life into family life. The results indicate that the pandemic has deepened gender inequalities, and the working life of early-career female academics has drastically changed in terms of academic productivity. Based on our findings, we recommend that quantitative research with large samples of early-career female academics should be conducted to develop nation-wide policies for gender inequality prevention. We also recommend that the professional development and career advancement of female academics in the early career stage should be compared with their male peers to reveal any gender-based disadvantages.