{"id":123992,"date":"2021-03-08T17:06:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T16:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=123992"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:25:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:25:27","slug":"women-are-the-fuse-box-of-academia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/03\/08\/women-are-the-fuse-box-of-academia\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Women are the fuse box of academia’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you recently given a Zoom lecture, with your computer strategically positioned to obscure the pile of laundry you haven\u2019t tidied away yet, and your toddler precariously balanced on your knee? I have, and if you have too, chances are you\u2019re a woman.<\/p>\n

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Around the world, women have been hard-hit by the pandemic \u2013 taking on a disproportionate amount<\/a> of childcare during school closures, with many leaving the workforce<\/a> entirely to home-school and perform other vital care duties. The situation in academia is particularly dire. Already at the start of the pandemic, alarm bells were ringing that women\u2019s research productivity was plummeting<\/a>, while that of men was actually rising<\/a>. The utter fiasco of the NWO\u2019s short-lived April 2020 coronavirus research grant is a symptom of a wider problem with the way academic careers have been made and broken during these catastrophic times. For those who missed the story: in March 2020, the NWO opened up a call for proposals for research on the societal impacts of coronavirus, with a closing date set for September. Days later, the call for proposals was abruptly closed, having \u2018reached full capacity\u2019. Who do you think had time to write a decent research proposal in the time span of a few days, during a historic disruption of normality? Look at the list<\/a> of the researchers to whom the grants were awarded at EUR and you\u2019ll get a picture.<\/p>\n

Structural inequality<\/h2>\n\t
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Read more<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t