Abstract
Remarking on the importance of managing the existential conflict between work and family responsibilities, emphasis on female academics in a COVID-19 era in Nigeria has received diminutive research attention. The study seeks to address this research gap by interrogating women's views of work-life conflict narrative in a COVID-19 era. The exploratory research design was employed to expand the limit of the research gap and a total of 19 female academics were y recruited for interviews. The NVivo (v.12) qualitative software was employed to identify themes from the data and content analysis used to make sense of the various themes. The paper shows evidence of cultural bias in the recruitment and placement of female academics with social constraints hindering female academic capacity development. The long hours of teaching and consultation depict an indicator of work-life conflict with consequences on family support and emotional care for family and dependents. The need to acquire higher education qualifications on the part of females is also established as a pointer for the provocation of work-life conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. The significance of lockdown constitutes major constraints for parenting mothers in the areas of combining home front responsibilities with work activities such as teaching, supervision, and the requirement of building a competitive career and research portfolio. The study concludes for a more robust measure in ensuring practical and realistic work-life conflict management strategies are introduced by managers of the University in order to aid the conflict between work and family responsibilities for female academics.
Highlights
The global purpose of work is the need for the promotion of a sustainable and healthy work pattern for all working class
This clearly corroborate the existing cultural and social constraints placed on women in a pluralistic and ethno-cultural infused society like Nigeria where female academics are prejudiced and constrained for capacity development and other academic networking opportunities
The results revealed that stress from excessive workload including domestic and occupational workload affect women academic worklife balance in a number of ways (Manzo & Minello, 2020; Nwagbara, 2020)
Summary
The global purpose of work is the need for the promotion of a sustainable and healthy work pattern for all working class. In the canon of women studies in Nigeria, available studies including work life balance and role conflict of career women in Ekiti State (Agboola, 2019) and family and work responsibilities coping strategies (Fatoki & Kobiowu, 2015) An interrogation of these array of studies depicts a research gap in the area of the impact of COVID-19 global health pandemic on women academic’s views of work-life conflict. By probing this important discourse, the study hopes to provoke a more nuance understanding of female academics’ work-life conflict through the lens of the current global health pandemic This analysis takes the fulcrum that managing work-life conflict is essentially relevant for the well-being of women academics in order to engender a striking balance between corporate and workloads. The study echoes for a proactive approach on the part of the managers of higher institutions of learning in ensuring workable work-life conflict management strategies are constituted for reduced work-life conflict among female academics
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