Abstract
Parents in academic careers face notable challenges that may go unrecognized by university management and/or policy makers. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on some of these challenges, as academic parents shifted to working from home while simultaneously caring for children. On the other hand, many parents found that the shift to working from home offered new opportunities such as working more flexible hours, development of digital skillsets, and increased involvement in the education of their children. In this article we explore the work-related challenges and opportunities experienced by academic parents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and offer potential long-term solutions for academic parents and their universities. We use the following methods: (1) a literature review focused on identifying the work-related challenges academic parents faced prior to the pandemic, as well as the impact of the pandemic on scientists and working parents and (2) administer a world-wide survey with the goal of identifying the challenges and opportunities associated with parenting and academic work through the COVID-19 lockdown (304 total responses; 113 complete). Moving forward these findings have enabled conclusions to be drawn in order to shape a new normal. Our aim is to offer university administrators, policy makers, and community service providers with ways to provide additional support for academic parents as well as provide tools for academic parents to learn successful strategies directly from their peers.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic required academics to work from home and switch to blended and hybrid teaching, requiring a quick shift in teaching materials and style
The findings from our study differed from other studies regarding academic rank and the impact of COVID-19 (e.g., Squazzoni et al, 2020, a bibliometric analysis of authorship and author order by gender of articles submitted during the first months of the pandemic) in a few key ways, which may be explained by the differences in study approach, : (1) the last author is not always the more senior member, as in some cases authors decide to use alphabetical order, or the last author may be from the funding body, (2) the study by Squazzoni et al (2020) only looked at gender, not at the influence of being a parent, and (3) our study looked at research, teaching, and work-life balance, and did not focus on publication output
We used literature review and survey data with quantitative and qualitative analyses to answer “How has the COVID19 pandemic affected the research and teaching of academic parents?” and “Which opportunities and challenges has the pandemic presented to academic parents?” From the literature review, we learned that academic mothers face a motherhood penalty in their career, which is not experienced by academic fathers
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic required academics to work from home and switch to blended and hybrid teaching, requiring a quick shift in teaching materials and style. School closures and the loss of other forms of childcare required a greater contribution of parents toward both the education and care of their children. The COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown(s) created increased challenges for academic parents. Academic parents experienced intensified workloads associated with shifting work from in-person to virtual platforms in conjunction with expanded childcare and/or homeschooling. Short-term solutions transitioned to long-term obstacles as parents began planning for extended periods with reduced or no childcare. A US survey conducted in May 2020 (National Coalition for Public School Options, 2020) found
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