How gender neutral are state policies on science and international mobility of academics

There are very few studies on the international mobility of academics from an institutional gender perspective, and research on gender and welfare states has so far been primarily nationally focused. This study considers what happens when work arrangements require (temporary) international mobility and the ways state policies can be inclusive or exclusive to caregivers and dual career couples when providing support for work abroad. While policies and practices around the internationalization of science appear to be gender neutral, this research argues that the globalization of science is a gendered process. Even the highly privileged group of scientists engaging in international collaboration and mobility faces national barriers and boundaries due to gendered citizenship. National funding agency practices and visa and immigration rules are designed around academics who are flexible, mobile workers whose “dependents” can easily follow. Such policies affect women scientists in particular because they are more likely to be primary caregivers to children and more likely to be in dual career couples than are their male colleagues.