From Male “Chance Narratives” to Female “Defeat Narratives”: Researchers in Catalonia Narrating the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on their Lives and Jobs

Abstract

This article proposes a three-fold typology to classify the narratives of forty-eight researchers in Catalonia describing the impact the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic had on their professional and personal lives: a “chance narrative,” which presents the pandemic as an occasion for growth; a “resistance narrative,” according to which the pandemic presents a burden, but one is skilled enough to navigate it successfully; and a “defeat narrative,” for which the pandemic deeply shattered one’s well-being. This analysis reveals that each narrative type is produced by researchers with certain sociodemographic features—defeat narratives were mostly produced by female researchers, holding precarious contracts, and assuming most of the increase of childcare and domestic work. These findings are consistent with studies revealing that the implementation of the “new fatherhood model” is limited and might orient the design of policies aimed at reducing gender discrimination in academia, both in Catalonia and beyond.