IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v28y2021is2p277-288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mothering with a career during a pandemic; the case of the Ghanaian woman

Author

Listed:
  • Philipa Birago Akuoko
  • Vincent Aggrey
  • Jennifer Dokbila Mengba

Abstract

The paper examines the multi‐tasked role of women in caregiving and career during the COVID‐19 partial lockdown in Ghana. One hundred fifty three mothers with careers within the Accra Metropolis participated in the study through purposive and snow balling sampling methods of non‐probability sampling technique. To observe the COVID‐19 protocols of social distancing, the research instrument was designed using Google forms and distributed to respondents via social media platforms (emails and WhatsApp). The results revealed that caregiving mothers generally reported to work late from home than if there were in the office and were less effective and productive working from home but were assured of job security because they mostly worked in the public sector. Hours used for domestic activities rose steadily during the lockdown period and social support from non‐relatives in caregiving increased. The paper’s finding suggests that mothers working from home are faced with difficult and conflicting roles which puts more pressure on women during the pandemic period. Women who are unable to access social support continue to be stressed and burdened in an attempt to combine family, care giving, and career roles which ultimately affect their overall wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipa Birago Akuoko & Vincent Aggrey & Jennifer Dokbila Mengba, 2021. "Mothering with a career during a pandemic; the case of the Ghanaian woman," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 277-288, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:s2:p:277-288
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12711
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12711?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jungho Kim, 2023. "Female education and its impact on fertility," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 228-228, May.
    2. Beauregard, T. Alexandra, 2006. "Predicting interference between work and home : a comparison of dispositional and situational antecedents," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 892, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Patricia A. Thomas, 2010. "Is It Better to Give or to Receive? Social Support and the Well-being of Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 65(3), pages 351-357.
    4. Dex, Shirley & Joshi, Heather, 1999. "Careers and Motherhood: Policies for Compatibility," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 23(5), pages 641-659, September.
    5. Bromer, Juliet & Henly, Julia R., 2004. "Child care as family support: caregiving practices across child care providers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(10), pages 941-964, October.
    6. Adeoye O. Akinola, 2018. "Introduction: Understanding Xenophobia in Africa," Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development, in: Adeoye O. Akinola (ed.), The Political Economy of Xenophobia in Africa, chapter 0, pages 1-7, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aleem, Majid & Sufyan, Muhammad & Ameer, Irfan & Mustak, Mekhail, 2023. "Remote work and the COVID-19 pandemic: An artificial intelligence-based topic modeling and a future agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Seema Singh, 2022. "Investigating the Status of Women Engineers in Education and Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lars Carlsen, 2024. "Sustainability: An Ethical Challenge: The Overexploitation of the Planet as an Exemplary Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Khalil ur Rahman & Tariq Anwar Khan & Kiramat Ullah, 2019. "Role Conflict, Marital Quality and Career Satisfaction: A Demographic Analysis of Dual Career Couples in Peshawar, Pakistan," Global Regional Review, Humanity Only, vol. 4(3), pages 195-205, September.
    3. Mary Grace F. Encila & Dennis V. Madrigal, 2021. "Balancing Work-Family Roles: The Experiences of Solo Parent School Administrators," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 20(1), pages 100-107, June.
    4. Wilfred Uunk & Paula Hoffmann, 2023. "Do Personality Traits Moderate the Effects of Cohabitation, Separation, and Widowhood on Life Satisfaction? A Longitudinal Test for Germany," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 141-157, January.
    5. Vinod Mishra & Ingrid Nielsen & Russell Smyth, 2010. "On the relationship between female labour force participation and fertility in G7 countries: evidence from panel cointegration and Granger causality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 361-372, April.
    6. Massimiliano Bratti, 2003. "Labour force participation and marital fertility of Italian women: The role of education," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 16(3), pages 525-554, August.
    7. Julio E. Romero Prieto, 2018. "La maternidad y el empleo formal en Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 16328, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    8. Karen Siedlecki & Timothy Salthouse & Shigehiro Oishi & Sheena Jeswani, 2014. "The Relationship Between Social Support and Subjective Well-Being Across Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 561-576, June.
    9. Barnes, Carolyn & Nolan, Sarah, 2019. "Professionals, friends, and confidants: After-school staff as social support to low-income parents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 238-251.
    10. Arnstein Aassve & Alice Goisis & Maria Sironi, 2012. "Happiness and Childbearing Across Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(1), pages 65-86, August.
    11. Adame-Sánchez, Consolación & González-Cruz, Tomás F. & Martínez-Fuentes, Clara, 2016. "Do firms implement work–life balance policies to benefit their workers or themselves?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5519-5523.
    12. Shoba Arun & Thankom Arun & Vani Borooah, 2004. "The Effect Of Career Breaks On The Working Lives Of Women," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 65-84.
    13. Yen-Pi Cheng & Kira S. Birditt & Steven H. Zarit & Karen L. Fingerman, 2015. "Young Adults’ Provision of Support to Middle-Aged Parents," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(3), pages 407-416.
    14. Petersen, Trond & Penner, Andrew & Høgnes, Geir, 2012. "From Motherhood Penalties to Husband Premia: The New Challenge for Gender Equality and Family Policy, Lessons from Norway," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt60p7c2pg, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    15. Parish, Susan L. & Cloud, Jennifer M. & Huh, Jungwon & Henning, Ashley N., 2005. "Child care, disability, and family structure: Use and quality in a population-based sample of low-income preschool children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 905-919, August.
    16. Clive Malietso Mukanzi & Thomas Anyanje Senaji, 2017. "Work–Family Conflict and Employee Commitment: The Moderating Effect of Perceived Managerial Support," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(3), pages 21582440177, August.
    17. Sheida Novin & Ivy Tso & Sara Konrath, 2014. "Self-Related and Other-Related Pathways to Subjective Well-Being in Japan and the United States," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 995-1014, October.
    18. Ang, Shannon & Malhotra, Rahul, 2022. "The filial piety paradox: Receiving social support from children can be negatively associated with quality of life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    19. Hooper, Alison & Schweiker, Claire, 2024. "Family child care educators’ experiences and decision-making related to serving children during COVID-19 and implications for supporting educators after the pandemic," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    20. Toni Porter & Diane Paulsell & Patricia Del Grosso & Sarah Avellar & Rachel Hass & Lee Vuong, "undated". "A Review of the Literature on Home-Based Child Care: Implications for Future Directions," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6cabb871ab5e4abba0a2df15f, Mathematica Policy Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:s2:p:277-288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.