16/04/2020

'From pandemic to pandemonium': challenges faced by mothers in science

Foto: Freepik

Reproduction from the IMPA Science & Mathematics blog, from O Globo, coordinated by Claudio Landim.

Marcia Barbosa – Full Professor at UFRGS and Director of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences

Fernanda Stanisçuaski – Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at UFRGS

Marcia wakes up, does her aerobics in her apartment (poor neighbors!), takes a shower, puts on the clothes she would wear to university, drinks a cup of coffee, and is ready to start a day that involves at least five online meetings with students and colleagues, recording a class or interview, and a more solitary activity like editing a scientific article, preparing a response for a referee, or correcting a student's calculation. At lunchtime, she heats up a plate of food and returns to her routine. She ends the day reading and rereading Heloísa Buarque de Holanda's book, *The Feminist Explosion*. Despite missing the in-person classes and lectures that are part of her daily routine, the pandemic hasn't affected her academic productivity. After all, as a theoretical physicist, she can do almost everything remotely.

Fernanda is woken up by her middle son, who climbs onto her bed and, upon falling to the other side, wakes the youngest, who now occupies his father's place in bed. In times of pandemic, getting up several times to breastfeed during the night is not part of Fernanda's plans. Everyone goes to the living room, where the oldest son is watching the morning news with his father.

After coffee, professional Fernanda emerges. It's time to answer emails, still in pajamas, while her father stays with the three of them. Time flies, and it's already time to prepare lunch, which, with the progression of the pandemic, doesn't always feature five different colors on the plate. Sometimes it's monochromatic, depending on the flavor of the leftover pizza from the night before. After lunch, it's nap time for the baby , while the older children occupy themselves with some activity in the living room. Second round of work for Fernanda, who can now try to submit the article that has been stalled for several weeks. But, apparently, babies have ultra-sensitive devices to detect their mother's need to work and wake up ten minutes after she sits down at the computer. The article remains untouched.

The afternoon begins with the eldest son's virtual classes. While the father tends to the baby who fell from the armchair and has a cut lip, Fernanda (while last-minute preparing materials for the virtual art class) rushes to move the middle child away from the webcam, as he was making faces at his brother's classmates. Baby crying, middle child misbehaving, eldest complaining that the worksheet he received is already drawn on. Faced with the resulting pandemonium , there is no alternative but to cancel the virtual meeting Fernanda was to have with Marcia and the doctoral student they jointly supervise, as her husband also needs to work.

With the cut lip properly treated, the middle child contained, and virtual tasks completed, it's time for a bath, dinner, story time , brushing teeth, and putting everyone to bed. Exhausted, Fernanda lies down on the bed, her heart heavy as she thinks about the scientists who responded to her survey on motherhood and science and stated that they were the sole caregivers of their children. Fernanda isn't very productive during the pandemic… imagine those who are facing this pandemonium alone.

Beyond the Marcias and Fernandas in academic life , there are people who need to care for the elderly and are certainly busy providing this support at this time. In this university world, there are also other younger figures, the postgraduate students. They live in worry, without any guarantee that their scholarships will be extended. Unlike Marcia's students who can work remotely, most scientific fields rely on conducting experiments, interviews, and tests. All these activities have been canceled due to confinement. How can we expect scientific output from these students without the means to produce it?

It seems logical that, at this critical moment, we cannot expect everyone, within their diverse responsibilities and activity characteristics, to have the same productivity. Institutions are facing the problem of how to evaluate the remote work of different professionals. It would be absurd to punish a professional for not keeping up the pace now, as each person has different family demands. However, when there is no crisis, this is precisely what institutions do: they use the same productivity evaluation yardstick for everyone. A yardstick constructed by those like Marcia who have greater availability. This yardstick disadvantages women, and particularly women with children. In Brazil before the coronavirus, women already worked an average of 10 hours more per week than men in domestic and caregiving activities [1]. This work was never taken into account when selecting, promoting, and supporting a professional.

As a result of this assessment, which does not take into account differences in workload, women with children have worse salary progression than women without children [2]. Note that on average women's salaries are lower than men's for the same activity, therefore women with children are even more penalized [3]. In the scientific community, the Parent in Science group showed that soon after motherhood, women's article production decreases, leading to the exclusion of these researchers from the scientific marathon [4].

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