COVID-19 and Caregiving IS Researchers: In the Same Storm, but not in the Same Boat

Communications of the AIS, Forthcoming, 2021

17 Pages Posted: 29 Jun 2021

See all articles by Wietske Van Osch

Wietske Van Osch

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Cynthia Beath

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management

Date Written: June 25, 2021

Abstract

In early 2020, reports emerged about the negative effects of COVID-19 on the productivity of female researchers who were taking care of their families during the pandemic, while male researchers spent their time in lockdown writing more papers and increasing their productivity. We wondered if the pandemic was affecting caregivers (mostly female) in the Information Systems (IS) discipline in the same way. If it was, we hoped to be able to suggest what actions caregivers might take in response. As an approximate way of distinguishing caregivers from non-caregivers in our analysis, we used gender. The results of our analysis are mixed, but they do suggest that COVID-19 has had some negative impacts on IS researchers who are caregivers. We offer several recommendations to caregiving IS researchers for mitigating the effects of the pandemic on their professional lives.

Keywords: COVID-19, Research productivity, Caregivers, Diversity, Inclusion, Gender, Women in IS

Suggested Citation

Van Osch, Wietske and Beath, Cynthia, COVID-19 and Caregiving IS Researchers: In the Same Storm, but not in the Same Boat (June 25, 2021). Communications of the AIS, Forthcoming, 2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3874016 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3874016

Wietske Van Osch

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Cynthia Beath (Contact Author)

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management ( email )

CBA 5.202
Austin, TX 78712
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
66
Abstract Views
567
Rank
617,725
PlumX Metrics