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campusreview.com.au
Researcher mums
need more support
Calls to consider ‘child rearing’
when looking at research output.
By Dallas Bastian
U
niversities should give more
consideration to female academics
caring for children, a new paper
has argued.
One way they could do this is by offering
financial aid to cover childcare costs for
those attending conferences.
Another recommendation is that
institutions that use publication and citation
benchmarks as key criteria for appointment
and promotion adjust these to cater for
women who have cared for children.
These suggestions were sparked by
emerging evidence that research output
decreases after caring for a child, and that
this may be due to reduced networking.
Professor Adrian Barnett, from QUT’s
School of Public Health and Social Work,
said: “These factors need to be considered
when research output is assessed for the
granting of funding – it is not enough to
view research performance only in the
context of reduced hours.”
The QUT team looked at an earlier
Australian paper, in which researchers
asked female researchers how many papers
they felt a child was worth. They said the
question sparked controversy.
One researcher stated: “You cannot
quantify output and productivity like that …
We need to take a more holistic look at the
CVs to suss out the candidates and what
they have to offer in a range of areas.”
However, as the impact of caring for
children is varied, a simple numerical
adjustment to a woman’s track record is
unlikely to be possible, Barnett added.
“Individual cases need to be looked at,
because caring for children can affect
different women in different ways.
“A single parent with limited family
support will most likely find it harder
to attend important networking events
and collaborate with peers compared to
someone with access to childcare and a
supportive partner.”
Barnett said both the National Health and
Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and
the Australian Research Council (ARC) have
come under fire for giving too much weight
to research quantity rather than quality,
with some researchers accusing it of being
an old boys’ club.
“Both ARC and the NHMRC allow
applicants to detail career disruptions
which may have impacted on their research
performance, including child birth and
carer responsibilities, and assess outputs
relative to that, but it is unclear how that is
achieved,” he said.
The QUT team’s suggestions come on
the back of the team’s study of Australian
women and focused on how caring for
children has affected careers.
The researchers evaluated the output of
95 randomly selected women, 59 of which
had cared for children over their career, and
measured both the output and visibility of
women using publications and citations.
Barnett said the result was a complex
picture, with different impacts on output
depending on the number of children, the
outcome considered, and the presence of
statistically influential women.
But it did establish that caring for children
was negatively associated with citations,
especially for women with two children.
“The ability to travel to research
conferences in Australia and overseas is
also greatly affected,” he said.
“As well as looking after children, some
of our participants pointed out that they
were often the primary carers for elderly
parents, which could also end up having a
big impact on their career.” ■
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