Gendered Work and Barriers in Employment Increase Unjust Work–Life Imbalance for Women: The Need for Structural Responses

Introduction

In this article, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women in the Indian context from a gender equity perspective, and how the shift in traditional roles and underpinning ideologies and discourses will further continue to push women at the margin (Alon et al., 2020). COVID-19 has strapped millions of families into economic hardship, and this pandemic has been described as more lethal than the 2008 financial crisis. Job loss due to lockdown and restriction measures, collapse of the industries (hospitality, travel, tourism, recreational) economic market, and inadequate financial support and social protection from the government has forced many families into financial hardship. The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the world’s economy and women are more likely to experience the brunt of it due to socio-cultural factors and patriarchy, which position women with a greater burden of family responsibilities compared to men in the Indian context. The existing socio-cultural structures such as gender related belief system and values, not only in society, but also in organisations, have been barriers for gender equality agenda for many decades (Ussher, 2006).

Why Decline in Female Labour Participation?

In view of increasing enrolments of female students in primary and secondary education and completions, several government programmes to increase their independence and awareness—raising of gender issues, it is natural to expect more participation of women in labour force. Contrary to this expectation, over the past two decades female labour participation has declined due to gender differences. It declined from 34.1% in 1999–2000 to 27.2% in 2011–2012. In 2020, only 19.9% of women aged 15 and older participated in the labour force, compared to 76% men (Catalyst, 2020). But in 2018–2019, among graduates, 53% of women had undergraduate degrees, nearly 70% had MPhil degrees and about 42% had PhD degrees (Catalyst, 2020). Why is this kind of relative increase not reflected in women’s labour force participation? Are they not trying for paid employment due to cultural and societal and gender reasons? When they try, are organisations open to them without any gender bias? From equity and equality point of view, are employment opportunities equally shared with women? Further research is needed to address these or similar questions. As discussed below, one also wonders whether low labour force participation may be attributed to patriarchy, family, cultural roles and norms, and potential work–life imbalance as they end up doing two full time jobs—work in home and office.

Mothering Discourse and Women in Pandemic

In this COVID-19 pandemic, working women continue to experience such pressure to meet the mothering standards, where she abandons her own personal and professional growth. Many studies show that mothers are aware of and feel pressure of social expectation and mothering standards (Blair-Loy, 2003; Hays, 1996; McCormack, 2005). Lack of support and understanding from the partner often result in family conflicts. In the Indian families, negotiating the space for gender equality and equal distribution of labour for domestic responsibilities create a situation where women are blamed for their thought and action. They are targeted for going against Indian family value system and blamed for breaking the family by arguing with husband and family members. Separation or moving out of marriage is considered as disturbing for the stability of family. Moreover, the patriarchy mindset is driven by drawing comparisons within the social status, family network, and many women accept this as some sort of default setting without questioning, as it makes them feel secure and comfortable. Despite having a deeper realisation, role reversal is impossible without change of mindset, strong conviction and cooperation from the male partner and other family members.

Foucault (1991) describes it as a disciplinary power that fuels a form of policing which is ‘connected to morality’. The disciplinary power of ethical and moral responsibilities of a mother instils a feeling of shame and guilt when individuals do not abide by the hegemonic discourses (Bartky, 1988). However, multiple factors are playing together in the current scenario including extended closure of childcare institutions, retrenchment in labour economy, absence of work from home opportunities in some sectors such as banks, government offices, departmental stores, hospitals, and allied professions, where women cannot continue their work while physically staying at home. Women are handcuffed in such scenarios where they have to make tough choices of fulfilling their duties as a mother versus professional pursuits, quite often they chose to first do justice to their role of a mother when they are at crossroads. The good mother discourse continues to shape the identities of mothers, as it defines how a mother should feel. Such identity and feeling ensures that women take up responsibility of child rearing, and their role as child raiser and career for others. It regulates families and family life and imposes dominant culture and driving national building agenda by controlling the reproduction of the next generation citizen (Goodwin & Huppatz, 2010, p. 6). These are the conditions imposed on the individual mother, not the system (Johnston & Swanson, 2003). Perhaps this explains why their labour participation is low and declining.

Changing Work Environment for Employed Women During COVID Pandemic

Globally, women and girls are responsible for around 75% of unpaid care and domestic work in their everyday life (Moreira da Silva, 2019). According to a United Nations (2020) report, unpaid care work has significantly increased due to closure of institutions attended by children including schools, day care and creches. Moreover, social isolation and fear of being infected with coronavirus has reduced the role of domestic helpers available for housekeeping work. In addition, increased caring needs of elderly and a rising number of COVID cases at household level have further increased women’s unpaid care responsibility. According to the recent estimates of International Labour Organization, an average female performed minimum 4 hours and 25 minutes of unpaid care work every day, compared with 1 hour and 23 minutes for men (Pozzan & Cattaneo, 2020). Women not only perform unpaid physical labour, but they disproportionately bear higher emotional labour, as social norms and culture place greater responsibility on women to maintain social ties, ensure the emotional wellbeing and psychological needs of their children, besides increased unpaid care work at home.

COVID-19 has brought significant changes in the work-environment as well as family dynamics. Women are grappling with performance pressures to justify their dedication without any distraction under the new ‘work from home’ arrangement. COVID-19 related safety measures such as lockdowns in the city and work from home requirements, have resulted in a situation where women are choosing to stay at home and taking up family responsibilities than before (Del Boca et al., 2020). They are living under constant pressure to perform domestic and professional roles simultaneously. The extended closure of institutions for children’s education and care such as schools, day boarding hostels, and childcare creches have predisposed women with a higher burden of childcare and domestic responsibilities. Due to closures and social distancing measures, women have a higher share of home schooling, childcare and other household responsibilities. Young children need attention and time, and closure of schools and childcare institutions has forced working mothers to compromise their work and give priority to their family. It may appear to be a sign for balancing families and domestic responsibilities, but not in terms of gender equality. Managing paid-work and motherhood has been a major challenge for working women (Warren et al., 2009). They are expected to fulfil both responsibilities without compromising the quality.

Parents have turned common place in home as space for study, work and leisure activities. This has a significant impact on the way women work at home and often they work late at night to complete their official work such as attending meeting, preparing reports, documents or any related tasks. While managing their gender-specific role during the day, they stay late to finish their assignments, leading to sleep deprivation, stress and parental burnout. In the dominant patriarchal orientation and family-oriented value, women never questioned these complexities in their life (Parkes et al., 2015).

The Need for Structural Reforms

The lack of institutional mechanisms to protect women from exiting labour force participation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic would negatively affect the progress made towards gender equity/equality. There is a dire need for restructuring existing policies and legal framework to promote women’s participation in workforce. The challenges confronted by women in situations such as COVID-19 crisis need to be addressed at policy level with an objective to create a conducive framework for women’s workforce participation in the formal and informal sector. It is critical to rethink inclusive pathways through gender-sensitive labour laws and policy decisions.

Gender-specific roles and beliefs are promoted through the laws and social norms and reproduced through state, schools, media and families. In Indian context, gender-specific beliefs prescribed differently for men and women from a very young age. For men it relates to prioritisation of work over families, whereas for women, it implies prioritisation of family over work. Women are expected to identify with family and required to invest their time and energy to maximise their performance to the gender specific roles such as cooking, cleaning, raising children, providing care to elderly in the family. As a result, they alone fight for a work–family balance compared to men folk. Significant socio-legal changes are needed in relation to flexible working hours, childcare facilities, and emergency support care for children and elders (Buddhapriya, 2009). Although the pandemic has further exposed this need, these issues, policies and provisions remain a back burner agenda as stereotyped gender roles interwoven in the cultural psychology do not visualise this as a grave issue. As a result, women’s lives are unjustly work–life imbalanced.

The cultural acceptance of such invisible sacrifices, and a greater burden of shouldering the traditional gender roles are often overlooked as it is observed as a common practice in the Indian psyche. It is important to note that deep-rooted socio-cultural norms and practices continue to intensify this gender divide during the economic aftermath of this pandemic. The current scenario has created a felt need even for employers to direct resources from their shrinking revenue towards their human capital. They are now being compelled to conduct online workshops, webinars and training modules to keep their employees at par with the rest of the world. There is an urgent need to recognise the challenge and work–life conflicts and imbalance experienced by women in their everyday life during this pandemic and invest in supportive measures to ensure that all women have equal access to resources and support (Addati et al., 2018). For this to occur, structural changes are needed at societal–cultural level in terms of how women and men are socialised into gendered roles and expectations; at government and institutional level to amend and change laws policies and programmes; and at employer organisations level to implement gender equality policies and programmes.