OWSD article on 'Resilient women scientists and the COVID-19 pandemic' published in Economia Politica
May 30, 2022
An article in a special edition of the journal investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women scientists from the Global South.
An editorial published in the Springer journal Economia Politica on March 8, 'Resilient women scientists and the COVID-19 pandemic: an OWSD analysis,' is now available online. The article investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women scientists from the Global South - specifically, OWSD members - to understand their resilience and adaptation strategies, utilising data from a member survey that examined the effects of the pandemic on the members’ work and employment, home and family lives, and mental well-being. The article is part of a special issue of the journal focused on 'Women, Pandemics and the Global South'. The article's authors are OWSD Programme Coordinator Tonya Blowers, OWSD Communications officer Erin Johnson, and OWSD President Jennifer Thomson.
The article finds that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirement to change practices in academia, indeed in all spheres of social and economic life, have provided a unique and most timely opportunity to observe, evaluate and revise what might be termed the current gender-limited environment for career progression for researchers in STEM subjects and instead create a gender-transformative environment that will have a profound effect on how scientific research is managed and undertaken in the world.
It describes the gender inequalities for women in STEM careers, presents the framework in which to situate the gender-related questions addressed, discusses the findings of the OWSD survey, with a focus on the effects of the pandemic on the individual, domestic and professional spheres of the respondents, and finally offers some conclusions. The article's appendix provides a collection of comments by OWSD members of the contributions they have made to relieving some of the effects of the pandemic in their countries.
This article follows a previous article in Economia Politica published in February 2020, on 'Women, science and development: The leading role of OWSD'. That article, by OWSD President Jennifer Thomson, OWSD Programme Coordinator Tonya Blowers, and OWSD Ambassador Alberto Quadrio Curzio, explores the various aspects of scientific capacity building addressed by each of OWSD's three major programmes (PhD Fellowships, Early Career Fellowships, and Awards) as well as its membership base.
The full article 'Resilient women scientists and the COVID-19 pandemic: an OWSD analysis' is available for download below, or can also be viewed on SpringerLink.
