A new study of ecologists and evolutionary biologists at U.S. colleges and universities reveals that female faculty and those who are caregivers, have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
The study, “Impacts of COVID‐19 on ecology and evolutionary biology faculty in the United States,” was published in the scientific journal Ecological Applications and highlights some interesting findings. It was conducted by three researchers: Dr. Lise Aubry, a Colorado State University (CSU) assistant professor in the department of fish, wildlife and conservation biology; Dr. Zhao Ma, a Purdue University professor of natural resource social science; and Dr. Theresa M. Laverty, a post-doctoral fellow in the CSU department of fish, wildlife and conservation biology.
Aubry came up with the idea for the study around the beginning of the pandemic, she said.
“At the time when the idea emerged, I basically just found out that our daycare had shut down,” she said. “And so, my husband and I find ourselves with our kids at home for pretty much six months – a four-month-old and a four-year-old. And so, we were trying to juggle our work and our kids.”
This got her thinking about how others – young assistant professors and those without partners to share duties with – were faring.
Aubry turned to Ma and Laverty, colleagues who were versed in survey design. Within three weeks, the three researchers had created the survey for ecology and evolutionary biology faculty.
“We wanted to stick to what we consider our academic family, because that’s the family we know,” Aubry said. “That was our survey population basically, because that’s the population that the three co-authors belong to.”
