The Gendered Toll of COVID-19 on Academics: Increasing Time Allocation Challenges Faced by Female Academics in Turkey

Abstract

This chapter examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academics in Turkey, focusing on the gender differences. Results show that married female academics experienced the largest increase in time allocated to household chores and childcare. Additionally, the time allocated to research was significantly lower for females than males. Male academics also reported having a higher increase in time allocated to personal matters and communication, such as time spent in Internet and social media, compared to female academics. As time allocation patterns did not change between genders who were living alone but did change between genders who were married, married females’ increased time allocations for household chores and child care do not represent an inherent difference between sexes. Overall, the COVID pandemic was a jolt that revealed all sorts of inequalities between female and male academics. Nevertheless, findings indicated that families were able to handle the pandemic somehow with minimal disputes.