Women in academia face many challenges, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is particularly true for women in academia who are also mothers. The authors conducted a phenomenological study examining these challenges and their effects on identity utilizing Super’s (1980) Life-Span Life-Space approach and Career Construction Theory (Savickas, 1997, 2005) as the theoretical framework. The participants identified and described the various ways they navigate their mother and scholar identities and the integration of their motherscholar identity. In navigating the pandemic at work and home, participants also reported changes to their identity as spouses/partners, and a sense of loss in their identities and roles professionally and personally. The authors outlined potential mental health implications and interventions for career counselors working with motherscholars.
AckerlyB. A.TrueJ. (2019). Doing feminist research in political and social science (2nd ed.). Red Globe Press.
2.
Adams-PrasslA.BonevaT.GolinM.RauhC. (2020). Inequality in the impact of the coronavirus shock: Evidence from real time surveys (pp. 1–49). Institute of Labor Economics. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3590881
AndersenJ. P.NielsenM. W.SimoneN. L.LewissR. E.JagsiR. (2020). Meta-research: COVID-19 medical papers have fewer women first authors than expected. Elife, 9, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.58807
5.
AntecolH.BedardK.StearnsJ. (2018). Equal but inequitable: Who benefits from gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies?The American Economic Review, 108(9), 2420–2441. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20160613
6.
AryaA. (2020). An overview of textual analysis as a research method for cultural studies. International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, 6(3), 173–177.
7.
AutinK. L.BlusteinD. L.AliS. R.GarriottP. O. (2020). Career development impacts of COVID-19: Practice and policy recommendations. Journal of Career Development, 47(5), 487–494. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845320944486
BlusteinD. L. (2008). The role of work in psychological health and well-being: A conceptual, historical, and public policy perspective. American Psychologist, 63(4), 228–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.4.228
10.
CardelM. I.DeanN.Montoya-WilliamsD. (2020). Preventing a secondary epidemic of lost early career scientists: Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on women with children. Annals of the American Thoracic Society, 17(11), 1366–1370. https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202006-589IP
11.
CollinsC.LandivarL. C.RuppannerL.ScarboroughW. J. (2021). COVID-19 and the gender gap in work hours. Gender, Work and Organization, 28, 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12506
12.
CooganP. A.ChenC. P. (2007). Career development and counselling for women: Connecting theories to practice. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 20(2), 191–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070701391171
13.
Docka-FilipekD.DraperC.SnowJ.StoneL. B. (2023). ‘Professor moms’& ‘hidden service’ in pandemic times: Students report women faculty more supportive & accommodating amid US COVID crisis onset. Innovative Higher Education, 48(5), 787–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-023-09652-x
14.
Docka-FilipekD.StoneL. B. (2021). Twice a “housewife:” on academic precarity, “hysterical” women, faculty mental health, and service as gendered care work for the “university family” in pandemic times. Gender, Work and Organization, 28(6), 2158–2179. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12723
15.
DuffyR. D.BlusteinD. L.DiemerM. A.AutinK. L. (2016). The psychology of working theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 127–148. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000140
16.
DunnM.GregorM.RobinsonS.FerrerA.Campbell-HalfakerD.Martin-FernandezJ. (2022). Academia during the time of COVID-19: Examining the voices of untenured female professors in STEM. Journal of Career Assessment. https://doi.org/10.1177/10690727211057441
17.
ElandaY. (2021). The construction of an ideal mother amid the COVID 19 pandemic: Gender injustice experienced by career women while working from home. HUMANISMA: Journal of Gender Studies, 5(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.30983/humanisme.v5i1.3670
18.
EnglandJ. W.DuffyR. D.GensmerN. P.KimH. J.Buyukgoze-KavasA.Larson-KonarD. M. (2020). Women attaining decent work: The important role of workplace climate in Psychology of Working Theory. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(2), 251. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000411
19.
FritschN. S. (2016). Patterns of career development and their role in the advancement of female faculty at Austrian universities: New roads to success?Higher Education, 72, 619–635. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9967-6
20.
GabsterB. P.van DaalenK.DhattR.BarryM. (2020). Challenges for the female academic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet, 395(10242), 1968–1970. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31412-4
21.
GasserC. E.ShafferK. S. (2014). Career development of women in academia: Traversing the leaky pipeline. The Professional Counselor, 4(4), 332–352. https://doi.org/10.15241/ceg.4.4.332
22.
GórskaA. M.KulickaK.StaniszewskaZ.DobijaD. (2021). Deepening inequalities: What did COVID‐19 reveal about the gendered nature of academic work?Gender, Work and Organization, 28(4), 1546–1561. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12696
23.
HeldV. (2006). The ethics of care: Personal, political, and global. Oxford University Press.
24.
HermannM.Neale-McFallC. (2018). Experiences of pretenure counseling professor mothers. NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, 11(3), 265–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/19407882.2018.1477682
25.
Hesse-BiberS. N. (Ed.), (2014). Feminist research practice: A primer. Sage Publications.
26.
JaegerA. J.HudsonT. D.PasqueP. A.AmpawF. D. (2017). Understanding how lifelong learning shapes the career trajectories of women with STEM doctorates: The life experiences and role negotiations (LEARN) model. The Review of Higher Education, 40(4), 477–507. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2017.0019
27.
LapayeseY. V. (2012). Mother-scholar:(Re) imagining K-12 education. Springer.
28.
LykesM. B.CrosbyA. (2014). Feminist practice of action and community research. In Hesse-BiberS. N. (Ed.), Feminist research practice: A primer (pp. 145–181). Sage Publications.
29.
MatiasC. E. (2023). Commentary: Birthing the motherscholar and motherscholarship. In MotherScholaring during the COVID-19 pandemic (pp. 117–121). Routledge.
30.
McConnonA.MidgetteA. J.Conry-MurrayC. (2022). Mother like mothers and work like fathers: US heterosexual college students’ assumptions about who should meet childcare and housework demands. Sex Roles, 86(1), 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-021-01252-3
31.
MinelloA.MartucciS.ManzoL. K. (2021). The pandemic and the academic mothers: Present hardships and future perspectives. European Societies, 23(sup1), S82–S94. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1809690
32.
Motherscholar CollectiveMyles-BaltzlyC. C.HoH. K.RichardsonI.Greene-RooksJ.AzimK. A.LimS. R. (2021). Transformative collaborations. International Perspectives in Psychology, 10(4). https://doi.org/10.1027/2157-3891/a000029
33.
MoustakasC. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage Publications.
34.
OleschukM. (2020). Gender equity considerations for tenure and promotion during COVID-19. Canadian Review of Sociology, 57(3), 502. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12295
35.
ParkerL. C. (2018). Examination of the relationship between classism and career agency. [Doctoral dissertation, Northern Illinois University]. Husky Commons.
36.
PattonW.LokanJ. (2001). Perspectives on Donald Super’s construct of career maturity. International Journal of Education and Vocational Guidance, 1(1-2), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016964629452
37.
SavickasM. (2019). Career counseling. American Psychological Association.
38.
SaundersB.SimJ.KingstoneT.BakerS.WaterfieldJ.BartlamB.JinksC. (2018). Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization.Quality and Quantity, 52, 1893–1907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0574-8
39.
SavickasM. L. (1997). Career adaptability: An integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. The Career Development Quarterly, 45(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00469.x
40.
SavickasM. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (1, pp. 42–70). John Wiley Pub.
41.
StamarskiC. S.Son HingL. S. (2015). Gender inequalities in the workplace: The effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1400. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400
42.
StraussA. L.CorbinJ. (2004). Open coding. Social research methods: A reader, 303–306.
43.
SuperD. E. (1976). Career Education and the Meanings of Work. Monographs on Career Education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, The Office of Career Education.
SuperD. E.NevillD. D. (1984). Work role salience as a determinant of career maturity in high school students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 25(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(84)90034-4
46.
TrougakosJ. P.ChawlaN.McCarthyJ. M. (2020). Working in a pandemic: Exploring the impact of COVID-19 health anxiety on work, family, and health outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(11), 1234–1235. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000739.supp
47.
VicariB.ZochG.BächmannA. C. (2022). Childcare, work or worries? What explains the decline in parents' well-being at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany?Journal of Family Research, 34(1), 310–332. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-86382-6
48.
WoodbridgeL. M.UmB.DuysD. K. (2021). Women's experiences navigating paid work and caregiving during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The Career Development Quarterly, 69(4), 284–298. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12274
49.
YildirimT. M.Eslen-ZiyaH. (2021). The differential impact of COVID-19 on the work conditions of women and men academics during the lockdown. Gender, Work and Organization, 28, 243–249. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12529
