Lavoro accademico al tempo della pandemia

Research studies on academic labor and the Covid-19 crisis have shown that the pandemic crisis has contributed to exacerbating pre-existing gender gaps, especially for those in the early stages of their careers and in temporary positions with possible long-term consequences [King and Frederickson 2020; Douglas et al. 2022; Squazzoni et al. 2021]. By drawing on 127 interviews with early and advanced career academics of 4 different Universities, this paper aims to make a contribution to this debate by adopting an intersectional (Crenshaw 1989) and inter-categorical approach (McCall 2001, 2005). It focuses on the Italian case by investigating how the gender dimension intersects with other axes of asymmetry, in particularly age/generation and class/career position, to produce conditions of (dis)advantage for specific groups of academics. This study shows that an intersectional approach enables to observe not only gender asymmetries, but a complex of multiple inequalities between men and women, mothers and fathers, early and advanced academics. The results illustrated very marked (dis)advantages according to different family configurations (singles, couples without children, couples with children), and to different career positions. The most disadvantaged group was couples with children, but within it, mothers with small or school age children, especially if motherhood is intersected with another axis of inequalities, career position. As matter of the fact, they were early careers (post-docs and researchers with a temporary contract) to live experiences of disadvantage. This appeared not only with regards to male and female colleagues who did not have such responsibilities, but also with respect to a large part of the group of fathers. In fact, this analysis revels that during Covid-19 only a small group of ‘innovative’ fathers recounted difficulties of work-life conciliation. A different complexity emerges that should be reread in the light of different family configurations.