CES-UC published study on pandemic and home gym

The Centre for Social Studies at 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 career? Study on the 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 understand the adaptation strategies for teaching and research work during the pandemic of COVID-19, by institutions and 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 assumed 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 more the time spent in attending to and monitoring students and in management tasks performed for the institutions; the increase in care/support tasks associated with motherhood and fatherhood affected the possibility of dedicating time to professional work in teachers and researchers with young children and that higher education and research institutions assumed that the creation of 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 in them to accommodate professional and family responsibilities in the context of working from home.

In general terms, the results point to an accentuation of gender inequalities in the division of academic work and an increased vulnerability of teachers and researchers with young children, as well as to the insufficiency of the response given by higher education institutions to the difficulties in creating conditions for remote teaching. In this sense, 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", which proposes a set of measures for the academy to respond to the challenges and inequalities created by the pandemic crisis. For more information on this study, please visit the CES-UC website.

This was one of 16 projects that were funded through the exceptional funding line "Gender Research 4 Covid-19", an initiative promoted by FCT, in conjunction with the Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality and 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.