Moms in academia in the Pandemic era- an Indian Perspective
The Gender divide in academia is well talked about. Women have career breaks, publish lesser than male peers, and are less likely to reach positions of power. Mothers are more at the mercy of circumstances than their male peers (fathers or childless) and childless women. The academic duties that need focussed involvement to create work plans, fetching of competitive grants, and the meticulous execution of the ideas seem nearly impossible to mothers with young children. Often the international travel requirements for education or for a grant acquisition places the woman at crossroads with their familial responsibilities.
The academic mothers are in a more unfavorable situation due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools and daycare services. The travel restrictions and the need for social distancing make the accessibility to familial or paid help impossible. On a personal note, the hardships of an academic mother are very relatable. To get past the societal norms of “getting married and having kids” until landing an academic career is a tough task in itself in many parts of the world, rural India included. The current pandemic situation itself can dampen the prospects of an early or mid-career woman scientist in becoming a PI if she has child care responsibilities compounded by the inaccessibility of daycare facilities or house help professionals. A sizable lot of women candidates stumble and deviate from research careers during maternity and child care breaks -which ultimately lag them behind in the race towards becoming a PI (the GOI is currently doing great in this regard by announcing women re-entry scientific projects). During Covid-19 global pandemic, women academics are having a hard time balancing the work-family demands. Though the work from home (WFH) policies, shifting of in-person conferences to webinars are evoking sighs of relief. On the flip side, the lockdown and WFH have been keeping the guilt trips of abandoning kids at bay without having the FOMO!!!. However, the spill-over work hours and sleep deprivation is going to take a toll on the mental health of mom academics in near future.
Minello et al, (2021) state that “the pandemic changed the priorities of academic mothers in a direction that is unfavorable to their careers: mothers devoted most of their time to teaching duties and stopped research. Moreover, they felt an increased gap in their relative competitiveness with male and childless colleagues”. Julia Leventon, Katy Roelich & Lucie Middlemiss co-host the blog “Mama is an Academic”, which discusses the trials and tribulations of academic mothers. In a recent post these mom bloggers identified a “wish list” to make the life of academic mom a little less hell!!. Here go the major points: making maternity and child care leave procedures easy and considerate, flexible work environment and the option to work remotely, consider the child care responsibility while planning meetings schedule, the flexibility to have childcare facility during conferences or work meetings and most importantly the acknowledgment of “academic motherhood as a challenge”.
References
1. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00019-x 2. Minello, A., Martucci, S. and Manzo, L.K., 2021. The pandemic and the academic mothers: present hardships and future perspectives. European Societies, 23(sup1), pp.S82-S94.
