The leaky pipeline problem, COVID-19 & big data: The impact of the pandemic on the gender gap in research production∗

Abstract

Gender gaps in research production are well documented in the literature across time and space. Female authors currently account for about 30% of total authors in journal publications, and this gap has been closing over time. The worldwide shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures to contain it have paralyzed the global economy, and scientific production has not been aliened to this. Furthermore, recent studies claim that the pandemic has not affected all scientists equally due to ma jor shifts in family schedules and routines, imposed by the restrictions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the pandemic on the gender gap in academic production, as measured by journal publications. Using data from 8.34 million authors in 206 differ ent countries who published articles in journals of several disciplines (STEM -Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics- and Economics) from the first quarter of 2015 to the second quarter of 2021, we calculate the percentage of female authors for each discipline, country, and period. Then, we estimate a fixed-effects model to iden tify the impact of country- and time-varying mobility restrictions on the gender gap in research production. Our results show a negative impact of the lockdown measures on the gender gap in academic production nine months after the mobility measures were implemented. This effect is larger and occurs earlier when considering publications with a single author. We also find heterogeneous results in the magnitude and timing of the effect of the restrictions across countries and disciplines.