Women's Experiences Navigating Paid Work and Caregiving During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, many women lost their jobs or chose to leave the workforce because of increased caregiving demands. Of women who remained employed, many faced increased complexity in negotiating their roles as employees and caregivers. On the basis of existing theory and research on the impact of women's caregiving responsibilities on their careers, we developed a model of the relationships among women's caregiving hours for children and adults, work‐family and family‐work conflict, perceived social support, and career satisfaction during the pandemic. We collected data from 475 university staff members and tested our model using a path analysis. Results suggested that caregiving hours for children directly influenced work‐family and family‐work conflict and that social support partially mediated the relationship between family‐work conflict and career satisfaction. We discuss how counselors might best work with women who are navigating multiple life roles during a period of family, community, and global challenges.

Associations of Work-Family Conflict with Family-Specific, Work-Specific, and Well-Being-Related Variables in a Sample of Polish and Ukrainian Adults during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed and deepened gender inequality in various family-related areas of life, as suggested in the review [ 16 ]. Consistent with the stereotype and a traditional gender role ideology (GRI) [ 14 , 15 ], women were more engaged than men in childcare and household tasks at the expense of reducing professional work hours and demands during the pandemic [ 16 , 19 , 23 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Gender inequality was also shown in an unequal negotiation of space and time in the home during the lockdown when both partners were working from home [ 56 ].…”

“…Furthermore, caregiving duties were significant and positive predictors of work-family conflict in women, but not among men. Additionally, Woodbridge et al [ 37 ] showed that caregiving hours for children directly influenced WFC and FWC among female university staff members in the United States. Lonska et al [ 23 ] showed that among various groups of the Latvian employed population, women under 44 and those with minor children in the household were more likely to face work-life balance difficulties during COVID-19.…”

“…Women with fewer educational, economic, and professional resources were more likely to play the role of caregivers, contributing to gender inequalities at work and in the family, as suggested by the literature [ 16 ]. Compared to men, women were more responsible for childcare, schooling, and household tasks, working primarily from home and reducing their work hours [ 19 , 23 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Overload in caregiving and overall workload in women was related to heightened WFC and FWC, as well as parenting stress, general perceived stress, concerns about job insecurity, general and neck/shoulder pain, stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lower life satisfaction [ 19 , 23 , 24 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

“…Compared to men, women were more responsible for childcare, schooling, and household tasks, working primarily from home and reducing their work hours [ 19 , 23 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Overload in caregiving and overall workload in women was related to heightened WFC and FWC, as well as parenting stress, general perceived stress, concerns about job insecurity, general and neck/shoulder pain, stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and lower life satisfaction [ 19 , 23 , 24 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. In particular, solely employed mothers were at higher risk of mental health adverse effects and job-related well-being than partnered working mothers [ 38 ].…”

“…We will examine the differences in WFC, FWC, well-being dimensions, and time pressure across countries, genders, relationship status, parenthood experience, caring for children under 12, and type of work (stationary vs. remote). We hypothesize that higher CWF and worse well-being will be presented in Poland than in Ukraine regarding the individualism-collectivism dimension [ 12 , 13 ], among teleworkers [ 20 , 21 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], women [ 16 , 19 , 23 , 24 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ], coupled individuals, and those having children [ 16 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Inter-group differences in time pressure will be explored for the first time in this study.…”