📊 Real-Time Twitter Tracking of Political Scientists

Has the pandemic worsened gender inequality in academia? This analysis uses 1.8 million tweets from roughly 3,000 political scientists to track professional visibility on social media—an important channel for career advancement—and to observe how behavior changed as work moved online.

🧭 How Changes Were Measured and Identified

• Automated text analysis categorized tweets about professional accomplishments and family-related content.
• A difference-in-differences estimation strategy isolated shifts associated with the pandemic-era move to remote work.

🔍 Key Findings

• Both men and women were affected by the pandemic, but notable gender differences emerged.
• Women posted fewer tweets about professional accomplishments than their male colleagues after the shift to remote work.
• There was a measurable rise in family-related tweets by women during the same period.
• The gendered decline in professional tweeting was more pronounced among junior academics, consistent with childcare and household responsibilities falling disproportionately on women.

🧠 Interpretation: Family Duties and Visibility

Evidence points to increased familial obligations as a key driver of the gendered shift in professional visibility on Twitter: the concurrent increase in family-related posts and stronger effects for junior scholars support this explanation.

💡 Why This Matters

A gendered reduction in public professional signaling during the pandemic could translate into longer-term career consequences. These real-time patterns highlight opportunities for proactive institutional policies to mitigate disparities before they become entrenched.