Resilient women scientists and the COVID-19 pandemic: an OWSD analysis

Abstract

Pandemics tend to have disruptive and uneven impacts on different population subgroups and across sectors. This paper investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women scientists from the Global South to understand their resilience and adaptation strategies, utilising data from a survey of women in STEM fields, who are members of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD). We employ a mixed-methods approach to examine the effects of the pandemic on the respondents’ work and employment, home and family lives, and mental well-being. We find 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.