Abstract: Although crisis times often exacerbate inequalities, disruptions also illuminate routine aspects of gendered organization. This study examines how gendered organization is revealed in new ways during disrupted times, including for the imagined ideal academic worker. First, research shows the myth of an always-productive (male) ideal worker with no bodily needs or carework burdens creates a harsh climate for junior women faculty; we ask how faculty narratives of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic relate to this myth. Second, faculty facing more barriers to enacting the ideal academic are often women and faculty of color, particularly assistant and associate professors; we examine whose productivity was most disrupted by COVID. To do so, we leveraged a public research university’s faculty reports (n=1533) alongside narrative pandemic impact statements (n=919). Complete-population analyses revealed that rather than lower-rank academic women, instead women full professors and Black women reported lower pandemic- onset productivity (vs. prior). Supplementary qualitative analyses reveal that cultural expectations embedded in a ‘disembodied worker’ ideal, rather than coming from junior women faculty, are instead articulated by men. This work contributes new insights about privilege at intersections of gender, race and rank to gendered organizations theory and can provide lessons for other crises in academia.
Citation: Citation: Pachucki, M.C., Smith-Doerr, L., Mickey, E.L., Reynolds, K., Riccitelli, J. 2026. Hierarchies and Bodies in Academic Jobs: How University Faculty Narrate Scholarly Productivity and Life Disruptions in Early COVID-19. Social Problems, in press.