CES-UC published a study on the pandemic and home gyms

The Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES-UC) recently released the results of the research project "Pandemic and Academia at home - what effects on teaching, research and careers? Study on changes in the scientific and higher education system", which was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the special support "Gender Research 4 Covid-19".

The study took place between August 2020 and September 2021 and used surveys and interviews with researchers and teachers from various entities linked to the national higher education and scientific system, seeking to find out the strategies for adapting to teaching and research work during the COVID-19 pandemic, by institutions and by the different groups that make up the academic staff.

The team that carried out the study, coordinated by researcher Virgínia Ferreira, highlights some conclusions, specifically that: compared to men, women took on a greater share of the effort associated with the increased material and emotional demands of teaching/learning and academic service during this period and increased the time spent caring for and accompanying students and on management tasks carried out for the institutions; the increase in care/school support tasks associated with maternity and paternity affected the possibility of dedicating time to professional work for teachers and researchers with young children; and that higher education and research institutions assumed that creating remote working conditions was mainly an individual problem, providing limited or insufficient responses to the difficulties faced by each person who teaches and/or researches there in order to accommodate professional and family responsibilities in the context of working from home.

In general terms, the results point to an increase in gender inequalities in the division of academic work and the increased vulnerability of teachers and researchers with young children, as well as the inadequacy of the response given by higher education institutions to the difficulties in creating conditions for remote teaching. In this regard, in addition to the full publication of the results(here), the team also produced a document entitled "Policy Brief: Proposals for a More Equal Academy in the Post-COVID-19 Era", in which it proposes a set of measures for academia to respond to the challenges and inequalities created by the pandemic crisis. For more information on this study, see the CES-UC website.

This was one of the 16 projects that were funded through the "Gender Research 4 Covid-19" exceptional funding line, an initiative promoted by the FCT, in conjunction with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality and with the support of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), and aimed at supporting research projects on the impact of the health emergency caused by COVID-19 on gender inequalities and violence against women and domestic violence.