Search results

As women perform most household chores and other nonproductive work, gender-based division of labor in the home has now been identified as a barrier to gender equality. The objective of this study is to assess the effects of gender distribution of housework especially for women and investigate the factors influencing the total hours spent on house chores in Bangladesh.

This study adopted a quantitative approach based on survey data obtained from 200 households in the Madaripur and Gopalganj districts of Bangladesh. To analyze the obtained data, the partial least squares (PLS) regression was used.

According to this study, demographic and socioeconomic factors of women, and gender are influencing the total hours spent in housework. Women were observed to have a positive relationship with empowerment but a negative relationship with social perception. Social perception was further observed to have a significant impact on the total number of hours expended by women on house chores.

The study suggests that the importance of sharing the burden of household work be taught in schools and community-based awareness programs so that it becomes ingrained as a social and cultural practice. Furthermore, the government should conduct a proper assessment that recognizes unpaid housework by women as an important factor in inclusive sustainable development.

Issues of inequality in the division of labor in household activities are barely recognized in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study collected primary data to assess the effects of gender on the distribution of housework. The findings of the study will help policymakers and academicians to better understand the gender-based division of household labor.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0195.

Compared to the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more workers today seemingly have choice over where, when and how they do their work. However, gender inequalities at work and at home persist, which may impact perceptions of choice. Thus, researchers must investigate the potential impact of gender and domestic responsibilities on perceptions of work-related options, including perceptions of workspace choice.

Using an original dataset with workers in North America, South America, Europe and Asia (N = 3,147), the authors conducted logistic regression analyses to explore whether workers felt they had a choice in where they do their work (workspace choice). In addition to gender, the authors considered the effect of domestic responsibilities (childcare and housework) on worker perceptions of workspace choice.

In the paper's initial regression, the authors found that men (OR: 1.24; 95%CI 1.04–1.48) as well as workers reporting that a partner was responsible for all or most of the housework (OR: 1.80; 95%CI 1.34–2.40) and childcare (OR 1.51; 95%CI 1.09–2.09) reported feeling a greater sense of workspace choice. Simultaneously, follow-up regression analyses found that women and men whose partners had a greater share of domestic responsibility had amplified perceptions of choice. However, surprisingly, men who claimed primary responsibility for domestic work also reported more choice over workspace.

Using an international sample, the authors explore gender inequities in worker perceptions of workspace choice. The authors' findings suggest that domestic responsibilities interact with gender in interesting ways, leading to differences in perceptions of choice in the post-pandemic workplace.

Remote work has been intensifying in organizations, and the recent pandemic forced an immediate increase in it, ignoring its effect on the family. The purpose of this study was to analyze the work and personal-family life balance of Colombian workers during the lockdown and the effects on post-pandemic times.

Quantitative correlational study with a non-probabilistic sample of 1,069 participants: 349 (32.64%) men and 720 (67.35%) women.

A total of 44.8% of the participants reported that their work interfered with their personal life; 61.6% reported that their work exceeded their habitual time; 72.2% felt comfortable with the remote work; and women perceived more affectation, as did participants with children. No interaction was present between these variables. There are more interruptions for workers with children younger than 12 years.

There is satisfaction with remote work. However, there are difficulties regarding work-personal life balance that must be addressed to improve quality of life, with an emphasis on women and workers with children, especially younger children.

This study provides empirical evidence for the foundation of public and organizational policies aimed at managing remote work and the work-personal life balance to reduce the risk of loss of female labor force and effects on the quality of life of workers.

Studies on the work-personal life balance with Latin American samples are scarce. This research contributes to the literature about satisfaction with working from home modality and the work-personal life balance during COVID-19 confinement, with a look at the differences by gender and the evaluation of the family conditions of Colombian workers, contributing to a regional perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to study the experiences of middle-class working mothers from the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) sector in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their experiences of work from home are studied in the backdrop of the ideal worker model at work and the adult worker model at home. Further, the study aims to identify the need for sustainable, inclusive practices for working mothers in Indian organizations to break the male breadwinner model in middle-class households.

A qualitative approach to collect data from 39 middle-class mothers working in MNCs in four metro cities in India. The semi-structured, in-depth interviews focused on their experiences of motherhood, care and work before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic made it evident that the ideal worker model in organizations and the adult worker model at home were illusions for working mothers. The results indicate a continued obligation of the “ideal worker culture” at organizations, even during the health crisis. It made the working mothers realize that they were chasing both the (ideal worker and adult worker) norms but could never achieve them. Subsequently, the male breadwinner model was reinforced at home due to the matrix of motherhood, care and work during the pandemic. The study concludes by arguing the reconstruction of the ideal worker image to make workplaces more inclusive for working mothers.

The study is placed in the context of Indian middle-class motherhood during the pandemic, a demography less explored in the literature. The paper puts forth various myths constituting the gendered realities of Indian middle-class motherhood. It also discusses sustainable, inclusive workplace practices for mothers from their future workplaces' standpoint, especially in post-pandemic times.

This article tackles the intersection of mothering and labor through the author's own experience as a feminist mother/manager from Istanbul, Turkey. It aims to revisit the first years of motherhood, exploring the struggle to invent a peculiar maternal subjectivity in opposition and negotiation with the patriarchal institution of motherhood, the new definition of maternal labor in a highly digital, neoliberal context and the issue of marital fairness in a dual-income heterosexual marriage.

The article presents an autoethnographic, retrospective and introspective inquiry into the first seven years of the author's mothering experience in order to offer an in-depth exploration of the various aspects of contemporary maternal labor.

The article shows how maternal labor has shifted in nature and expanded in scope in a contemporary non-Western context. It investigates the dissolution of the spatial, temporal and sensorial boundaries between the managerial labor dedicated to the workplace, and to the family. Highlighting the similarities of the two forms of labor, the article manifests the materiality, tangibility and visibility of maternal labor.

Further intersectional studies shall be beneficial to redefine maternal labor in different contexts.

Departing and diverting from the terms “invisible labor” and “mental load”, the article suggests a shift in terminology to stress the multifaceted medley of managerial tasks mothers undertake today.

The article provides an original take on maternal labor through the first-hand experience of a middle-class, professional mother from Istanbul, Turkey.

Despite the recognition that contextual factors play a key role in shaping individuals’ work-family (WF) interface, empirical research that simultaneously considers individual, roles and contextual factors is scarce. Drawing on the pyramid model of work-home interface, we delve into the intersection among sex, gender role ideology (GRI) and urbanization (URB) in relation to WF conflict and enrichment in India. Specifically, we explored whether and how sex (male vs female), GRI (traditional vs egalitarian) and URB (big vs small city) interact to predict WF conflict and WF enrichment.

The data were collected from 586 full-time employees working in both more and less urbanized cities in India. Moderation analyses were utilized to study the interaction effects on WF conflict and enrichment.

Results indicate that GRI is a stronger driver of WF experiences, especially WF enrichment, for women regardless of location. The study contributes to the understanding of WF experiences in India and addresses the complexity of WF experiences, especially with respect to sex and gender.

Our study offers a nuanced understanding of WF experiences in India by integrating micro- to macro-level antecedents, thereby addressing the complexity of WF experiences. While a lot of research explains sex and gender differences in WF experiences, our study highlights how these experiences vary with the degree of URB.

This study aims to explore the perceptions of quality of life among older Thai adults with hypertension.

A descriptive qualitative design was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 40 older adults. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

The analyses were divided into six major themes: happiness in life; health and functionality; activity in social relationships; religion anchor; autonomy to manage their own life; and security in finances and environment.

The findings can guide health care professionals and policymakers when planning and implementing interventions and policies for improving the quality of life of older adults, particularly that of rural older adults with low incomes.

The findings showed minor differences between urban and rural older adults in financial security, where the rural participants expressed greater financial insecurity than the urban counterparts. However, no other major differences emerged.

Policy for women's entrepreneurship is designed to promote economic growth, not least in depleted rural areas, but very little is known about the contributions of rural women entrepreneurs, their needs or how the existing policy is received by them. Using a theoretical framework developed by Korsgaard et al. (2015), the authors analyse how rural women entrepreneurs contribute to rural development and discuss the implications for entrepreneurship policy. This paper aims to focus on the aforementioned objectives.

The authors interviewed 32 women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden representing the variety of businesses in which rural Swedish women are engaged. The authors analysed their contributions to rural development by analysing their motives, strategies and outcomes using Korsgaard et al.’s framework of “entrepreneurship in the rural” and “rural entrepreneurship” as a heuristic, interpretative device.

Irrespective of industry, the respondents were deeply embedded in family and local social structures. Their contributions were substantial, multidimensional and indispensable for rural viability, but the policy tended to bypass most women-owned businesses. Support in terms of business training, counselling and financing are important, but programmes especially for women tend to miss the mark, and so does rural development policy. More important for rural women entrepreneurs in Sweden is the provision of good public services, including for example, schools and social care, that make rural life possible.

Theoretically, the findings question the individualist and a-contextual focus of much entrepreneurship research, as well as the taken-for-granted work–family divide. How gender and how the public and the private are configured varies greatly between contexts and needs contextual assessment. Moreover, the results call for theorising place as an entrepreneurial actor.

Based on the findings, the authors advise future policymakers to gender mainstream entrepreneurship policy and to integrate entrepreneurship and rural development policy with family and welfare state policy.

The paper highlights how rural women respond to policy, and the results are contextualised, making it possible to compare them to other contexts. The authors widen the discussion on contributions beyond economic growth, and the authors show that policy for public and commercial services and infrastructure is indeed also policy for entrepreneurship.

This study explored the challenges academics faced with work structures during the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications for their work–life balance (WLB).

Relying on the interpretative paradigm and the qualitative research method, the dataset consists of semi-structured interviews with 43 academics in the United Kingdom.

This study’s findings indicate that academics in the UK experience issues around increased boundary permeability between work and nonwork domains and role overlap, which engender the transfer of negative rather than positive spillover experiences and exacerbate negative consequences to the well-being of academics. ICTs also reinforced gendered work-family boundaries and generated more negative work–life/family spillover for women than for men.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to address ICT-related health issues through better work designs and HR initiatives that respond to the health requirements of academics. Policymakers should be futuristic and ensure comprehensive work–life policies for academics, which are necessary for humanising overall organisational well-being.

Although COVID-19 challenges are common to all workers, the experiences and effects on specific workers (in this case, UK academics) within specific national jurisdictions play out differentially, and they are often experienced with different levels of depth and intensity.

In the M'Zab Valley, women have long remained confined to their domestic sphere and are invisible in outdoor spaces. This study aims to analyse the use of public and private spaces by the women of Ksar El Atteuf, particularly after the significant changes that society has undergone.

This study examines the role of gender in the daily life of an urban community in the M'Zab Valley in Algeria through semi-structured interviews with relevant experts and a survey of 100 Mozabite women. It focuses on their roles and views regarding using spaces and maintaining Mozabite heritage.

Social and religious norms influence women's utilisation, behaviour and roles in gendered spaces. Most women consider their place to be within the house but refuse to live primitively. Education and work have enabled them to emerge outdoors. The results also showed that owing to the restrictions imposed on women, 60% of them emphasised the need to express their opinions and make decisions, and 26% asked for more opportunities and spaces.

This study broadens understanding of Mozabite society and its architectural and urban heritage. The empirical study surveyed women and conducted interviews with experts. This is valuable, particularly, given the challenges of studying gender in conservative cultural settings.