Examining Inequitable Workload in a Time of Crisis: A COVID-19 “Sabbatical”

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly exacerbated already existing disparities for women in the academy (Guy & Arthur, 2021; Hayden & Obrien Hallstein, 2021; Sills, 2020). This is seen most prominently for mothers of infants, toddlers, or school-aged children who are expected to take on the bulk of childrearing and maintain their academic prowess. Institutional efforts to stop the tenure clock may do little to help these women “catch-up” or address the fact that they are more likely to fall behind their male counterparts. Even still, such accommodations do not change the fact that delaying tenure and/or promotion will increase pay inequities. For contingent women faculty, such a blow to productivity may halt the ability to secure long-term employment. These gaps have reached every corner of academe and threaten the future of the professoriate and our discipline. Women in academia are forced to choose between having a successful career and being a good mother. Or they are expected to perform the idea that they can “have it all.” The pandemic has made this discourse more evident. As a cisgender white woman in a heteronormative partnership, I am privileged in many ways and am able to escape the harsh realities of racism, neoliberal multiculturalism, and poverty that have disproportionately impacted BIPOC and international faculty on U.S. campuses. In some ways, I can ride the pandemic wave and appear unscathed on the other end. Yet, as a mother who struggles with an anxiety disorder and moderate depression, COVID-19 was mentally destructive. When I was visibly pregnant, my colleagues would tell me how lucky I was to be taking a “sabbatical” after my maternity leave. They used air quotes. They assumed I was not taking a sabbatical, but rather, an extended maternity leave. Both my maternity leave and sabbatical were deep privileges afforded to me and yet, the gendered expectation that I temporarily leave the workforce to set up house was sexist. In each of these encounters, I would respond with frustration, thinking to myself that none of my male colleagues would be accused of taking a “sabbatical.” I had a