Care, Career, Corona: Survey on the work situation of Early Career Researchers at the University of Göttingen under pandemic conditions

With the March 2020 lockdown in Germany, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on life and work became evident in many areas of society. People responsible for care tasks were particularly affected by the discontinuation of care and nursing services, e.g. through the closure of childcare facilities and schools as well as day and night care facilities and changed conditions in outpatient care. Women in particular absorbed the arising care tasks (cf. Kohlrausch/Zucco 2020). Universities must react to the new conditions in several ways - as educational institutions, as employers and also as part of an academic system in which careers are formed, promoted or slowed down - and increasingly promote the compatibility of academic work and care tasks.

The pandemic will undoubtedly have medium- and long-term effects in addition to the short-term effects. Medium and long-term effects in particular have hardly been discussed or researched so far. It is undisputed that the coronavirus pandemic will affect all members of the University of Göttingen, irrespective of their status, gender, age or physical condition, albeit in different ways. The problem of reconciling care and academic work has become aggravated for those with care responsibilities, especially for women. There is currently a lack of reliable data that would allow us to understand, firstly, how and to what extent the coronavirus pandemic influences Early Career Researchers‘ actual working and career conditions. Secondly, it is important to identify which factors actually promote inequality. Thirdly, we plan to develop possible equality instruments for the University of Göttingen. This is particularly important because many of the measures offered so far are based on individualised negotiations between Early Career Researchers and their managers.

In order to meet this need for knowledge, the Göttingen Diversity Research Institute, together with the Centre of Methods in the Social Sciences, plans to conduct a survey on the situation of Early Career Researchers (this includes the status group "Mittelbau" as well as junior professors and those in tenure-track positions). Our work is closely coordinated with the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Unit. In order to do justice to the internationality of the University of Göttingen, the survey will be conducted bilingually (German/English). The data collected will be used to identify problems and needs for action to improve the compatibility of academic employment and care work for Early Career Researchers at the University of Göttingen. It will be used to develop recommendations for action, especially gender equality measures.

Invitation to participate in the survey

Findings