Gender Impact and Confinement in Academia: a study on working conditions, academic time usage and academic production during the Covid-19 crisis at the Complutense University of Madrid

Under the Horizon 2020 SUPERA (Supporting the Promotion of Equality in Research and Academia) Project, a survey on working academic conditions, academic time usage perception and academic performance during the Covid-19 lock-down was conducted in June 2020 at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). It was distributed among the whole census of the faculty staff at the university, getting back more than 1500 responses, representing almost 25% of the population. In general, the results are very clear on that female faculty staff experienced a much harder time during the lockdown than their male colleagues. Significant differences were found, and women experienced worse working conditions, and an increased time in both domestic/caring and academic work. Also gender roles confirmed and aggravated during lockdown in academic time usage, and all these conditions and gender roles’ distribution in academia have consequences in academic performance and production. This paper presents the main empirical results highlighting the gender differences in academic time usage perception, consisting on a reproduction of the gender roles even before the pandemic, and an aggravation of the gender roles differences during the confinement. This gender roles confirm that female academics perceive they spend more time in teaching and students’ attention and male academics in research, writing and publishing. These results are explored in light of further qualitative analyses, and of the persistent structural inequalities that can be found at the university setting. It also discusses possible alternative measures discussed through a participatory process for working with the survey results led by the Gender Equality Nodes Network in the different UCM Faculties.