Systemic sexism in academia: an early-career viewpoint

Abstract

Over the past years, a theme has recurrently popped up in conversation among us (the present authors): Discussions over Zoom, at conferences, on bumpy roads in the field, during walks with the kids, over coffee, etc., have tended to steer onto the hardships of navigating systemic sexism in the early stages of our research careers. The space we have created for these discussions among ourselves has helped to ground our individual experiences in a collective reality. It is a testament to the importance of the lifeboat formed by connections between female academics and friends (Bentley and Garrett 2023). Yet a lifeboat is only that: It keeps us afloat but often barely.The consensus we´ve reached is that having to build, inflate, and constantly patch up our own lifeboat as we navigate a slew of systemically produced, sexist challenges adds injustice to injustice. Ending misogyny in academia requires, first and foremost in our opinion, that we openly denounce the setbacks that we face, by virtue of our womanhood, starting at the very headwaters of our careers. So, in what follows, we share the main hurdles we and other women around us have faced, across institutions and continents, in the throes of our growth as researchers.