Gendered experiences of working in higher education (HE) during the COVID pandemic and the long-term impacts for academic careers are beginning to be recognised. That COVID may constitute a career shock has already been advanced by Akkermans et al. (2020). Employing collaborative autoethnography, the narrative accounts of women academics from around the globe provide insights into the experiences of their work dynamic during this period and uncover the possible implications this has for career development and progression. Many participants highlighted the pressure by their institutional leaders to maintain business as usual in relation to their work. This also translated into gender inequalities in universities with emphasis on continuity at the expense of potential disruption to norms that might push forward gender equality. Sensitivity to the impacts of this period remains crucial to our current understanding of academic careers and of how crises can unmake/remake gender inequalities in academia.