New on-line writing retreat for women at Lincoln to start in 2022
The gendered nature of caregiving means that women have borne the brunt of childcare and home-schooling during the pandemic, following the closure of schools and nurseries. This has had a measurable and significant impact on their research productivity. A disproportionate drop in women’s authorship of papers and initiation of projects was noticed rapidly in lockdown, and more recent studies, taking account of the lead time for research publication, have shown that this trend is sustained
When it comes to research, perhaps the most difficult and time-consuming part of it is writing. You need meaningful blocks of time, free of interruptions and distractions and avoid any sense of haste. And you must be able to prioritise your research output above all the pressing deadlines of tomorrow’s lecture, unmarked assignments, and so on.
The pandemic has unquestionably magnified and amplified the existing inequalities in academic research, particularly in terms of outputs, which is one of the reasons I am setting up an online writing retreat for women at Lincoln. It is intended for any woman (inclusively defined by identification) of any career stage from PGR onwards who wants time to work on any sort of research-related writing, from theses to grant bids to books and articles to more public-facing outputs. The emphasis will be on non-judgemental space and support – partly because of time constraints, there will be no peer-reviewing, just a three-hour block of time, weekly if possible, including breaks, goal-setting and time to get to know each other a bit.
The gendered nature of caregiving means that women have borne the brunt of childcare and home-schooling during the pandemic, following the closure of schools and nurseries, and this has had a measurable and significant impact on their research productivity. A disproportionate drop in women’s authorship of papers and initiation of projects was noticed rapidly, and more recent studies, taking account of the lead time for research publication, have shown that this trend is sustained.
More nuanced investigation shows that gender intersects with other variables, meaning that mothers, single mothers, and women of colour, already facing the biggest barriers to research careers, also faced the biggest drops in publications. Although it has been recommended that the contribution that can be made beyond publication is acknowledged by giving more recognition to other forms of dissemination, it is nevertheless very important that women and other affected groups should be able to research and publish as much as anyone, if only because job satisfaction in academics is strongly correlated to research productivity.
Many of the measures suggested to remedy this alarming trend are excellent ideas – improving childcare provision, ensuring flexibility in hiring and promotion criteria, extending deadlines and simplifying paperwork on grant applications, tailoring mentoring specifically for individuals facing structural barriers to research. They are, however, largely beyond the remit of a single institution.
Writing retreats are not new in academia. Reflections on one women academics’ writing retreat which had been running for nearly a decade in 2006 showed that participants found a positive impact on their pleasure in writing, their confidence in themselves as writers, and their productivity. Since the pandemic, online retreats have taken the place of face-to-face, usually residential sessions. Online is of course much easier to resource and schedule, and although such sessions lose the sense of physically being away from other work or home responsibilities, their usefulness is not necessarily diminished because of that.
I will be aiming to start this online writing retreat this early in semester B – scheduling will inevitably be difficult, and initially at least will be determined by my teaching timetable. If you would like support, advice and a regular weekly session you can devote to writing your own research outputs, do please get in touch with me by 1 February 2022.
Dr Kate Hill, Deputy Head, School of History and Heritage
Further Reading:
- On pre-pandemic gender and research: T. Barnes and E. Beaulieu (2017) ‘Engaging women: addressing the gender gap in women’s networking and productivity’, Political Science and Politics 50 (2), 461–6.
- On job satisfaction in academia: V. L. Hesli and J. M. Lee (2013) ‘Job satisfaction in academia: why are some faculty members happier than others?’, Political Science and Politics 46 (2), 339–54
- On the pandemic and research inequalities: Mothers in Science has gathered a lot of the research that’s been done in one place – https://www.mothersinscience.com/research-covid19
- On writing retreats and their benefits: B. M. Grant (2006) ‘Writing in the company of women: exceeding the boundaries’, Studies in Higher Education 31 (4), 483-495
