"Working from Home? I Took a Leave of Absence Due to Childcare and Household Burdens" [Reading Science]

Sharp Decline in Female Researchers' Output, Increased Childcare and Household Burdens Lead to More Leave of Absence
Surge in International Collaboration and Open Access Publications Due to Rise in Online and Remote Research Activities

Reference photo. Not related to the article.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Yeonhwa Kim, a female scientist living in Pohang, Gyeongbuk, faced the 'COVID-19 pandemic' right after giving birth early last year. Fearing that she might transmit the infectious disease to her child, who was not even one year old, she ultimately chose to take a leave of absence. She tried to conduct research while staying at home, but balancing childcare was not easy. It was also difficult for her husband, who was working remotely, to share childcare duties. Her husband was unable to find time due to online lectures, meetings, and collaborative research with overseas researchers in different time zones. Kim said, "COVID-19 will change all existing lifestyles," adding, "When everyone else moves toward the 'new normal,' will I be able to go there with my baby? Will I be able to return to the research field?" (Source - Korean Federation of Women’s Science and Technology Associations)

COVID-19 is directly impacting the lives of scientists. In particular, female scientists working from home are struggling to produce research results due to the burden of childcare and housework. On the other hand, non-face-to-face and online research activities have become more active, leading to a surge in international research collaborations and open-access paper publications.

According to the Korea Research Foundation (NRF) on the 3rd, female researchers worldwide have seen a sharp decline in research output since the COVID-19 pandemic. The closure of educational and childcare facilities to prevent COVID-19 has drastically reduced the productivity of female researchers. In fact, the number of economics papers with female researchers as lead authors had steadily increased since 2012 but turned to a decline last year after the COVID-19 outbreak. According to statistics from the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, D.C., the proportion of female authors among all paper authors dropped from 23% in 2019 to 21% in 2020, and the proportion of papers with female lead authors also decreased from 23% to 22% during the same period.

A research team official said, "Among 991 researchers who wrote 386 COVID-related papers from March to October 2020, only 19 were middle-aged female scholars," adding, "Since COVID-related research spans applied microeconomics, a field in which women tend to have more interest, the decrease in female-authored papers is unlikely due to a relative lack of interest in COVID."

A survey conducted by Harvard University and Northwestern University in June last year, targeting 4,535 university professors and key researchers in the U.S. and Europe, revealed that scientists caring for children under five years old experienced a 17% reduction in research time due to the pandemic. The international academic journal Nature recently published a paper analyzing the number of papers posted on two preprint servers used by researchers to verify their work before official publication. It showed that in mathematics and physics, the number of female authors increased by only 2.7% during March-April 2020, the early pandemic period, while male authors increased by 6.4%, highlighting a significant gender gap in research output.

On the other hand, as online and non-face-to-face research activities have become routine, the publication of open-access papers (preprints) and international research collaborations have explosively increased. The number of open-access paper publications surged from about 270,000 in 2019 to 360,000 last year, compared to only until 2010. The proportion of international collaborative research among all research papers also rose sharply from the high 21% range in 2019 to the mid-23% range last year.

The Research Foundation analyzed, "Due to the nature of preprints, open-access papers tend to increase as they allow rapid information disclosure and serve as evidence for discussion," adding, "The increase in international research collaboration is due to the development of network environments and increased idea exchanges through video conferences despite physical movement restrictions, as well as the availability of scientific data online."