IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmerit/v3y2023i1p6-114d1029464.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of COVID-19 on Working Women with Caring Responsibilities: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Randal Joy Thompson

    (Institute for Social Innovation Fellow, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, USA)

Abstract

Working women forced to quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown often faced additional unpaid care responsibilities, requiring a “second or even a third shift”, such as educating their children in addition to caring for them while working. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of a sample of working women with care responsibilities in order to derive recommendations for post-COVID working structures and arrangements. The study explored the unique experiences of four women from the United States, Latin America, and Africa, across a range of personal and organizational contexts. The study employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to understand and interpret the lived experiences and meaning-making of these women during the pandemic lockdown. The IPA was supplemented by the visual data gathering techniques of “a special object” and “the River of Experience” to give voice to participants’ more metaphoric thinking. The study concluded that participants’ experiences reflected the superordinate themes of: (1) a deep sense of loss of “the normal”; (2) psychological reboot and seeing the world with new eyes; (3) emerging women’s community and connection; and (4) redefining the world of work for women. Each superordinate theme was supported by several subthemes. Recognizing that the 9-to-5 work world has been remodeled to a certain extent, the participants recommended more flexible work arrangements and more support for human needs by employers and society as essential elements of the postpandemic workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Randal Joy Thompson, 2023. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Working Women with Caring Responsibilities: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis," Merits, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmerit:v:3:y:2023:i:1:p:6-114:d:1029464
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/3/1/6/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-8104/3/1/6/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Judith Derndorfer & Franziska Disslbacher & Vanessa Lechinger & Katharina Mader & Eva Six, 2021. "Home, sweet home? The impact of working from home on the division of unpaid work during the COVID-19 lockdown," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-26, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Boll, Christina & Müller, Dana & Schüller, Simone, 2023. "Neither backlash nor convergence: dynamics of intra-couple childcare division during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 57, pages 1-27.
    2. Fatemeh Hamedanian, 2022. "Access to the European Labor Market for Immigrant Women in the Wake of the COVID Pandemic," World, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-22, November.
    3. Mariana Loezar-Hernández & Erica Briones-Vozmediano & Elena Ronda-Pérez & Laura Otero-García, 2023. "Juggling during Lockdown: Balancing Telework and Family Life in Pandemic Times and Its Perceived Consequences for the Health and Wellbeing of Working Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Mejía-Guevara, Iván & Fuentes, María Estela Rivero, 2024. "Intergenerational paid and unpaid labor production and consumption inequality by gender in Mexico," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).
    5. Anna Kurowska & Agnieszka Kasperska, 2024. "Work from Home and Perceptions of Career Prospects of Employees with Children," Working Papers 2024-08, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    6. Krammer, Sorin M.S., 2022. "Navigating the New Normal: Which firms have adapted better to the COVID-19 disruption?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    7. Christina Boll & Dana Müller & Simone Schüller, 2021. "Neither Backlash nor Convergence: Dynamics of Intracouple Childcare Division after the First Covid-19 Lockdown and Subsequent Reopening in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 9091, CESifo.
    8. Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska & Anna Matysiak & Agnieszka Kasperska, 2023. "Gender and family perspectives on the uptake of ICT-induced home-based work," Working Papers 2023-01, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    9. Ketoki Mazumdar & Sneha Parekh & Isha Sen, 2023. "Mothering load: Underlying realities of professionally engaged Indian mothers during a global crisis," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 1080-1103, May.
    10. Janeen Baxter & Alice Campbell & Rennie Lee, 2023. "Gender Gaps in Unpaid Domestic and Care Work: Putting The Pandemic in (a Life Course) Perspective," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 56(4), pages 502-515, December.
    11. Valerija Botric & Sonja Radas & Bruno Skrinjaric, 2023. "Gender differences in management styles during crisis and the effect on firm performance," Working Papers 2301, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb.
    12. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger & Ulrike Huemer & Walter Hyll, 2021. "The Austrian Labour Market in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic," WIFO Reports on Austria, WIFO, issue 7, June.
    13. Krammer, Sorin, 2021. "Navigating The New Normal: Which Firms Have Adapted Better To The Covid-19 Disruption?," MPRA Paper 109485, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Ulrike Famira-Mühlberger & Ulrike Huemer & Walter Hyll, 2021. "Der österreichische Arbeitsmarkt im Zeichen der COVID-19-Pandemie," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 94(5), pages 371-388, May.

    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:gam:jmerit:v:3:y:2023:i:1:p:6-114:d:1029464. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.