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Women's Experiences Navigating Paid Work and Caregiving During the COVID‐19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Woodbridge Lindsay M.,
Um Byeolbee,
Duys David K.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the career development quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.846
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 2161-0045
pISSN - 0889-4019
DOI - 10.1002/cdq.12274
Subject(s) - workforce , pandemic , negotiation , work (physics) , psychology , covid-19 , work–family conflict , paid work , sociology , medicine , political science , mechanical engineering , social science , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , engineering
During the COVID‐19 pandemic, many women lost their jobs or chose to leave the workforce because of increased caregiving demands. Of women who remained employed, many faced increased complexity in negotiating their roles as employees and caregivers. On the basis of existing theory and research on the impact of women's caregiving responsibilities on their careers, we developed a model of the relationships among women's caregiving hours for children and adults, work‐family and family‐work conflict, perceived social support, and career satisfaction during the pandemic. We collected data from 475 university staff members and tested our model using a path analysis. Results suggested that caregiving hours for children directly influenced work‐family and family‐work conflict and that social support partially mediated the relationship between family‐work conflict and career satisfaction. We discuss how counselors might best work with women who are navigating multiple life roles during a period of family, community, and global challenges.