Gender inequality
It is often argued that COVID-19 shed light on the already existing
societal problems such as gender inequality in science (Andersen,
Nielsen, Simone, Lewiss, & Jagsi, 2020; Huang, Gates, Sinatra, &
Barabasi, 2020). In a survey of 880 trainees and professors, women
reported lower self-perceived productively (Korbel & Stegle, 2020)
possibly due to higher involvement of women with children and domestic
responsibilities (Derrick, Jaeger, Chen, & Sugimoto, 2019; Jolly et
al., 2014). This and lack of access to childcare during the pandemic has
resulted in lower productivity of women academics indirectly assessed by
the number of preprints published during the pandemic lockdown (Andersen
et al., 2020). Thus all together, policymakers should consider gender
inequality and inform polices that promote equity. It is highly crucial
that the mitigating policies for loss of productivity ensure gender
equity especially for academic mothers (Malisch et al., 2020;
Staniscuaski et al., 2020).