Winners and Losers in Academic Productivity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is the Gender Gap Widening for Faculty? J Womens Health (Larchmt) 2022 Apr;31(4):487-494
Date
12/23/2021Pubmed ID
34935469DOI
10.1089/jwh.2021.0321Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85129178123 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 18 CitationsAbstract
Background: The coronavirus pandemic accelerated academic medicine into the frontline of research and clinical work, leaving some faculty exhausted, and others with unanticipated time off. Women were particularly vulnerable, having increased responsibilities in both academic work and caregiving. Methods: The authors sought to determine faculty's responses to the pandemic, seeking predictors of accelerated versus decelerated academic productivity and work-life balance. In this survey of 424 faculty from a private Midwest academic medical center completed in August-September 2020, faculty rated multiple factors both "pre-COVID" and "during the COVID-19 lockdown," and a change score was calculated. Results: In a binary logistic regression model comparing faculty whose self-rated academic productivity increased with those whose productivity decreased, the authors found that controlling for multiple factors, men were more than twice as likely to be in the accelerated productivity group as women. In a similar model comparing partnered faculty whose self-rated work-life balance increased with partnered faculty whose work-life balance decreased, being in the positive work-life balance group was predicted by increased academic productivity, increased job stress, and having higher job priority than your partner. Conclusions: While the COVID-19 pandemic placed huge stressors on academic medical faculty, pandemic placed huge stressors on academic medical faculty, some experienced gains in productivity and work-life balance, with potential to widen the gender gap. As academic medicine evolves post-COVID, leaders should be aware that productivity and work-life balance predict each other, and that these factors have connections to work location, stress, and relationship dynamics, emphasizing the inseparable connections between work and life success.
Author List
Ellinas EH, Ark TK, Kaljo K, Quinn KG, Krier CR, Farkas AHAuthors
Elizabeth H. Ellinas MD Associate Dean, Professor in the Anesthesiology department at Medical College of WisconsinAmy H. Farkas MD, MS Associate Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Kristina Kaljo PhD Associate Professor in the Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Katherine Quinn PhD Associate Professor in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Communicable Disease ControlFaculty, Medical
Female
Humans
Male
Pandemics
Sex Factors
