True meritocracy is only fair when a leveled playing field is guaranteed. Scientists with caregiving responsibilities, often women, carry a heavy burden of unpaid labour, and therefore suffer downfalls in performance. Centered on an online survey that circulated among Argentinean ecologists between March and June 2020, we explored some of the mechanisms that may be behind differential performance and perception of performance in scientific tasks between genders. Based on 437 responses, we found that caregiving relays more on women than men, and that women dedicate less uninterrupted time to paid work, and more to unpaid domestic labour, especially when working from home. Women seem to start their careers younger than, but promote to higher categories older than men. Women value their own work more poorly than men. Both female and male researchers seem to choose more male referents and advisers, especially among older generations. The interaction between family and work is perceived negatively by women in early career stages, yet women and men felt supported by their advisers with respect to family-related issues. After the COVID pandemic, home-office has become an acceptable work practice adopted in different work places. However, our results show that at least in some fields of science, this may be inequitably productive for men and women. Public policies must help relieve all scientists, but especially women, from heavy unpaid caregiving labour and facilitate leaving their home space to detach from tasks related to domestic issues during work hours. Greater peer recognition of women’s research should increase their participation as advisers and referents, and improve perception of their own work and those of other women. Public policies should aim at a fairer and more equitable working environment for women.

中文翻译：

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观点——生态学学术生涯：性别、护理劳动和工作环境的影响

只有保证公平的竞争环境，真正的精英管理才是公平的。承担照顾责任的科学家（通常是女性）承担着沉重的无偿劳动负担，因此绩效下降。我们以 2020 年 3 月至 6 月期间在阿根廷生态学家中流传的一项在线调查为中心，探讨了性别之间在科学任务中表现差异和表现感知背后可能存在的一些机制。根据 437 份回复，我们发现，与男性相比，女性更多地承担照护工作，并且女性花在有酬工作上的不间断时间较少，而花在无酬家务劳动上的时间较多，尤其是在家工作时。女性似乎比男性更年轻地开始职业生涯，但晋升到更高级别的职位却比男性年长。女性比男性更不重视自己的工作。女性和男性研究人员似乎都选择更多的男性参考人和顾问，尤其是老一辈。在职业生涯早期阶段，女性对家庭与工作之间的互动持负面看法，但女性和男性都认为在家庭相关问题上得到了顾问的支持。新冠疫情大流行后，在家办公已成为不同工作场所可接受的工作方式。然而，我们的结果表明，至少在某些科学领域，这对于男性和女性来说可能是不公平的。公共政策必须帮助所有科学家，尤其是女性科学家，摆脱繁重的无偿护理劳动，并帮助他们在工作时间离开家庭空间，脱离与家庭问题相关的任务。同行对女性研究的更大认可应该会增加她们作为顾问和参考人的参与，并提高她们对自己和其他女性工作的看法。公共政策应旨在为妇女创造更公平、更公平的工作环境。