Preview

PDF (Accepted version) 787Kb

COVID‐19 is dramatically reconfiguring paid work and care. Emerging evidence in the global media suggests that academic women with caring responsibilities are being proportionately impacted. This article fills a key knowledge gap by examining how Australian universities are supporting academics to manage remote work and caring during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We conducted a desktop analysis of public information about remote working and care from 41 Australian universities and compared them to the world’s top 10 ranked universities. Findings suggest that during the pandemic, the Australian higher education sector positions decisions about caring leave and participation in the paid labour force as ‘private’ matters in which employees (mainly women) design their own ‘solutions’ when compared with international institutional counterparts. We argue that COVID‐19 provides another context in which universities have evaded their responsibility to ensure women’s full participation in the labour force.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	women, academic, caring, COVID-19, pandemic, higher education, university, Australia
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Sociology
Research Field:	Social change
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in human society
UTAS Author:	Nash, M (Associate Professor Meredith Nash)
UTAS Author:	Churchill, B (Mr Brendan Churchill)
ID Code:	139198
Year Published:	2020
Web of Science® Times Cited:	69
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2020-06-01
Last Modified:	2022-08-29
Downloads:	6 View Download Statistics