Speaker
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched everyone’s lives, but it has not affected everyone equally. Madonna called COVID-19 “the great equalizer,” but she was wrong: the risk and severity of the disease itself, and the pandemic’s economic and social impacts, vary with age, income, race, and gender. The pandemic has laid bare and often worsened many pre-existing inequalities in our world. One issue of longstanding concern is gender equality, and I will discuss why the pandemic has the potential to worsen gender gaps in STEM fields. Data from several sources, including my own preliminary analysis of preprint submissions to arXiv and bioRxiv broken down by gender, suggest that women are getting less research done than men during the pandemic. I will explore several possible explanations for this trend, including an increased child care burden, and lead the group in a discussion of possible solutions.
