Navigating the leaky pipeline : a multifaceted investigation of the challenges that caregivers face in academic career progression

The leaky pipeline phenomenon is a complex issue that reflects the underrepresentation of women in senior positions in academia. The aim of the current doctoral thesis was to explore the contribution of caregiving-related issues to the leaky pipeline phenomenon in academia and, specifically, to determine the extent to which bias against caregivers on the part of employers and evaluators plays a role. The current project investigated parent bias in different aspects of academic career - at the hiring stage and during career progression - and assessed the extent to which parent-academia stereotypes contribute to how an academic parent is perceived in career contexts. Studies 1-3 of this doctoral project focused on investigating the content of parent stereotypes and what these stereotypes predict in terms of hiring outcomes in academia vs industry. Studies 4-6 focused on the barriers that academic parents experience in specific contexts in academia, such as bias in teaching evaluations (Study 4), bias against women who change their surname (Study 5) and the impact of the gendered distribution of caregiving duties during the COVID-19 pandemic on career outcomes (Study 6). A major finding of the current project is that individuals with caregiving responsibilities face challenges in addition to those associated with gender. The findings showed that individuals in non-traditional roles who have made life choices that are inconsistent with cultural sex roles are more likely to be penalised in academic career contexts. Patterns of parent bias and gender bias were discovered although the evidence of this was inconclusive. These findings are discussed in light of their theoretical contribution to previous literature and their potential practical implications in terms of informing policy recommendations about gender- and caregiving-related issues in the workplace and raising awareness of the challenges that academic parents face.