Megan Frederickson, University of Toronto, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Megan Frederickson, University of Toronto, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
SBBI Seminar: "The Gendered Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Scientific Productivity”
SBBI Seminar: "The Gendered Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Scientific Productivity”
18 Sep 202010:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Harvard community only
ABSTRACT:
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched everyone’s lives, but it has not affected everyone
equally. The risk and severity of the disease itself, and the pandemic’s economic
and social impacts, vary by age, income, race, and gender. The pandemic has laid bare
and often worsened many pre-existing inequalities in our world. One issue of longstanding
concern is gender equality, especially in science, and I will discuss why the pandemic
has the potential to worsen gender gaps in STEM fields. Data from several sources,
including my own analysis of preprint submissions to arXiv and bioRxiv broken down
by gender, suggest that women are getting less research done than men during the pandemic.
I will explore several possible explanations for this trend, including an increased
child care burden, and discuss possible solutions.
Location:
Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/96034573783?pwd=S05YeUREdmtEdlhRZ0VhUVdvc3lwdz09
Organizer:
Megan Frederickson is Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Her research investigates the ecology and evolution of cooperation among species, or mutualism. Mutualisms are extremely common in nature; many plants, animals, and microbes depend on other species to get resources, defend themselves, find mates, or disperse. These interactions are a growing area of research in ecology and evolution. Molecular techniques are revealing the diversity and importance of many cryptic mutualists, especially fungi and bacteria, and more research is being done in the tropics, where for unknown reasons mutualisms are particularly widespread.
The primary goal of her research is to improve our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of mutualistic populations. Her current work focuses on the following questions:
What mechanisms promote mutualism and prevent cheating?
How does partner diversity in mutualisms shape the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations?
How do mutualisms vary over geographic landscapes?
What are the community-level consequences of mutualisms?