COVID-19 gender policy changes support female scientists and improve research quality
Witteman, et al.,9th February 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
In response to a 7% drop in grant submissions by women during the pandemic, a Canadian funding agency offered a second round of COVID-19 funding two months later, it extended the deadline to 19 days and reduced the paperwork requirements. A study now shows that the number of proposals by women jumped to 39% as a result of these policies.

December data show women’s employment declining in pandemic—no clear end in sight
8th January 2021, IWPR
December unemployment numbers in the USA show a catastrophic end to the year for working women, who lost a far greater proportion of jobs on payroll than men. Women held 5.4 million fewer jobs on payroll and men 4.4. million than they did in February 2020, prior to the COVID-19 recession.

No Tickets for Women in the COVID-19 Race? A Study on Manuscript Submissions and Reviews in 2347 Elsevier Journals during the Pandemic
Squazzoni et al., 19th October 2020, SSRN
COVID19 is causing academic women to publish less due to home-schooling, childcare and other caregiving duties, giving their male counterparts a competitive advantage.

COVID-19 medical papers have fewer women first authors than expected
Andersen et al., 15th June 2020, eLIFE
COVID19 is disrupting work-life balance for many families with children as schools, daycare centres and activities are being shut down. The cost of this falls disproportionately on women and can be seen in the falling publication rate of women when compared to their male counterparts.

The decline of women's research production during the coronavirus pandemic
Vincent-Lamarre et al., 19th May 2020, Nature
COVID19 is disproportionately affecting academic women, which can be seen in the declining number of submissions and publications by women during March and April 2020.

Are women publishing less during the pandemic? Here’s what the data say
Viglione, 20th May 2020, Nature
The pandemic is causing female academics to cut down their submission and publication rate resulting in a loss of academic activity when compared to their male counterparts.

COVID-19’s gendered impact on academic productivity
Frederickson, 11st May 2020, GitHub
Women, being often the main caregivers of their families, are more negatively affected by the pandemic than their male counterparts. As school and daycares are being shut down because of COVID19, the responsibilities for their children’s education fall on women’s shoulders.

COVID-19 Disruptions Disproportionately Affect Female Academics
Deryugina et al., January 2021, National Bureau of Economic Research
A study of 20,000 Ph.D. holders published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper showed mothers suffered a 33% larger drop in research hours compared with fathers. The survey, conducted from May to July 2020, also found that mothers took on more household and child care duties than fathers.

Living, working and COVID-19 - Eurofond
Ahrendt et al., 28th September 2020, Eurofound
This survey conducted in European countries found that women were more impacted by the pandemic than men regarding job losses and having to reduce working hours.

Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists
Myers et al., 15 July 2020, Nature Human Behaviour
This large survey of European and US researchers shows that women scientists with young children are expected to be more affected by the pandemic in terms of research productivity and career advancement.

Gender, race and parenthood impact academic productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic: from survey to action
Staniscuaski et al., 4th July 2020, bioRxiv
This survey on over 3000 Bazilian academics found that female academics, especially Black women and mothers, were disproportionally impacted by the pandemic, when compared to men.

The impact of COVID-19 on women scientists from developing countries: Results from an OWSD member survey
Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, 29th June 2020
This survey conducted in African countries reveals that women scientists were more affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than their male peers, and this effect is aggravated by the fewer resources available in developing countries to support remote learning and working.

COVID-19 Survey Shows One-Third of Researchers Could Leave Neuroscience
British Neuroscience Association (BNA), 18th June 2020
This small survey of British neuroscientists shows that a significantly high number of neuroscience researchers have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly a third of respondents set to leave neuroscience as a result.

The impact of COVID-19 on women in the STEM workforce
Johnston et al., 17th May 2020, Australian Academy of Science
This survey of Australian scientists reveals that women faced disproportionate increases in caring responsibilities and disruptions to working hours, job security and paid work capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Women Lose All the Jobs: Essential Actions for a Gender-Equitable Recovery
Boesch et al., 1st February 2021, Center for American Progress
Women and their families, who were already treading water before the pandemic, are bearing the brunt of this crisis.

Expert’s take: Five steps to make the COVID-19 social protection and jobs responses work better for women
Tabbush, 20th January 2021, UN Women
To recover from this crisis, decisive government action is imperative to safeguard the rights and needs of women and girls.

Rebuilding the Academy: Strategies for Supporting Academic Mothers during the COVID-19 Global Pandemic and Beyond
Fulweiler et al., 25th September 2020, Preprints
The impacts of COVID19 have highlighted the pre-existing problems that mothers in academia face, and Fulweiler et al. (2020) describe the strategies that would make academia more equal for working mothers. Moreover, the same strategies can be applied to other minorities, e.g. BIPOC and LGBTQ+ academics.

Opinion: In the wake of COVID-19, academia needs new solutions to ensure gender equity
Malisch et al., 7th July 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The paper highlights how the pandemic is supersizing the issues that women and minorities faced already before the pandemic. It places emphasis on solutions that target gender inequality and bias experienced by BIPOC (mothers and women).

The pandemic and the academic mothers: present hardships and future perspectives
Minello et al., 28th August 2020, European Societies in the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis
Emphasizes the gender differences and bias towards women and mothers in the academia. This paper highlights the inequality problems within the academia that COVID19 has brought into daylight. However, it does not directly suggest solutions.

An open letter from the European Women in Mathematics (EWM)
Barbeiro et al., 2020, www.europeanwomeninmaths.org
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing gender inequities in mathematics and other sciences. And gender-blind measures do not correct gender inequity.”