The Impact of COVID-19 on U.S. Computer Science Faculty’s Turnover Intentions: The Role of Gender

The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for college faculty, with evidence that it has the potential to exacerbate pre-pandemic gender inequities in work demands (Tugend, 2020). The impact of the pandemic may be particularly difficult for women in male-dominated STEM fields such as computer science that pose additional challenges and had high attrition rates among women faculty pre-pandemic (NSF, 2019; Weisgram & Diekman, 2017). The present study examined the mechanisms through which gender may have implications for changes in turnover intentions due to the pandemic among computer science faculty, with a focus on changes in work-family conflict and workplace attitudes. A total of 317 tenure-line and non-tenure line computer science faculty across the U.S. (54.26% women, 49.84% tenured) completed a survey that included items examining whether the pandemic changed work-family conflict, work-related attitudes (job satisfaction, sense of belonging, burnout), and turnover intentions. Results of analyses indicated that identifying as a woman indirectly predicted larger increases in turnover intentions due to the pandemic, through increased work-family conflict, burnout at work, and decreased feelings of job satisfaction. The results suggest that the pandemic has the potential to increase women’s attrition from computer science faculty positions, further exacerbating their underrepresentation.