scholarly journals “I may be essential but someone has to look after my kids”: women physicians and COVID-19

Author(s):  
Julia Smith ◽  
Lina Abouzaid ◽  
Joy Masuhara ◽  
Salima Noormohamed ◽  
Neli Remo ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives This paper analyzes results from focus groups held with women physicians in British Columbia which explored questions around how gender norms and roles influenced their experiences during COVID-19. Methods Four virtual focus groups were organized between July and September 2020. Participants (n = 27) were voluntarily recruited. Data were analyzed using applied thematic analysis. Results In addition to the COVID-19-related changes experienced across the profession, women physicians faced distinct challenges related to an increase in unpaid care responsibilities, and often felt excluded from, and occasionally dismissed by, leadership. Women leaders often felt their contributions were unrecognized and undervalued. Participants drew strength from other women leaders, peer networks, and professional support, but these strategies were limited by unpaid care and emotional labour demands, which were identified as increasing risk of burnout. Discussion Even though women physicians hold a degree of relative privilege, unpaid care work and gender norms contribute to distinct secondary effects of COVID-19. Women physicians link these to pre-pandemic assumptions (within families and communities) that women would absorb care deficits at their own cost. Health system leadership continues to reflect a masculine normative experience wherein the personal and professional are separated, and which devalues the emotional labour often associated with feminine leadership. The strategies participants employed to address negative impacts, while demonstrating resourcefulness and peer support, reflect individualistic responses to social-structural challenges. There is a need for greater recognition of women’s contributions at home and work, increased representation in decision-making, and practical supports such as childcare and counselling.

Author(s):  
Ito Peng ◽  
Jiweon Jun

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of care and care work, and exposed pre-existing inequalities. Our survey of the impacts of COVID-19 on parents with small children in South Korea reveals that mothers were much more likely to bear the increased burden of childcare than fathers, which, in turn, had direct and negative impacts on their well-being. We discuss how South Korea’s dualised labour market, gender-biased employment practice, social norms about childcare and instrumental approach to family and care policies may have contributed to the persistent unequal distribution of unpaid care work within households and gender inequality.


2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Kamp

In Uzbekistan, the 1990s brought significant and sometimes drastic change in employment and income security and in earning opportunities. In focus groups conducted in 1996 and 1997 with citizens of Uzbekistan from various ethnicities, regions and social classes, it was within the context of discussion of work and income that the idea of “transition” came through most clearly: life was once normal, and will be normal again sometime, but meanwhile nothing is certain. In these focus groups there was a pervasive sense that “the transition” is an aberration; this was expressed most succinctly in criticisms of those women who transgressed gender norms in order to earn an income in the “shuttle” trade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 815-819
Author(s):  
Anjalee Kohli ◽  
Ni Luh Putu Maitra Agastya ◽  
Ben Cislaghi ◽  
Marie-Celine Schulte

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-250
Author(s):  
Sabiha Yeasmin Rosy ◽  
Fatemeh Nejati

Abstract This study investigates the impact of male labor migration upon wives living among their husbands’ extended families in Tajikistan. It studies the risks and choices available to such wives in bargaining for remittances, with a particular focus on the risks that daughters-in-law (kelin in Tajik) undertake when negotiating remittances with their mothers-in-law. This paper explores age and gender-specific norms in Tajik transnational families and their minimal opportunities for kelins to bargain and negotiate the risks associated with making “claims” on remittances by using Deniz Kandiyoti’s “patriarchal bargain” and Bina Agarwal’s household bargain framework, as well as extensive fieldwork conducted in Tajikistan. The study concludes that international migration and remittances have had a complex impact on gender norms in Tajikistan, with emerging new forms of passive negotiation by kelins unlikely to undermine patriarchal gender norms in their favor.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cherneski

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to reveal the gendered nature of social arrangements in order to bring to the surface the hidden discourses that mediate the opportunities of women leaders in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThe author uses critical sense-making (CSM) to analyze interviews with CSR leaders toward understanding the interconnected layers of influences they draw from as they make sense of their experiences.FindingsDespite the positioning of women as being untapped resources within CSR, the reality within CSR leadership indicates that resilient, stereotypical social constructions of gender are being (re)created. However, cues can disrupt the ongoing process of sense-making and create shocks that represent opportunities for resistance as discriminatory practices are revealed.Research limitations/implicationsApplying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.Social implicationsIf these leaders are able to use their discursive power to establish an alternate, dominant narrative throughout their organizations – a culture of emotional empathy within CSR – alternate meanings about the nature and purpose of CSR may emerge while highlighting the need for change.Originality/valueApplying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-238
Author(s):  
Petra Daňsová ◽  
◽  
Lenka Lacinová ◽  
Dana Seryjová Juhová

This study introduces the concept of emotional labour, the theoretical underpinnings of its delineation and connections to emotion regulation and brings it into the context of parenthood. Emotional labour was originally described by sociologists in the context of a work environment which requires one to consciously influence one’s emotions when interacting with a customer or a client. The connection of emotional labour with psychological theories of emotion regulation allowed for a better understanding and grasp the mechanisms through which emotional labour can lead to “burning out” or stress. Currently, parents are exposed to a great amount of information about how to “correctly” parent their children, which together with their own idea of a good parent, the influence of their family and close friends as well as other people, creates high demands precisely in the area of experiencing and expressing emotions in their interactions with their children. Today, the parent role approaches that of the job in several aspects. Its demands for emotional labour can be linked to negative impacts on mental health. The concept of emotional labour can be considered to be appropriate for a better understanding of what a parent experiences with the child in mundane situations and how parents handle the emotions. The perspective of emotional labour can therefore bring important information about emotions in parenthood and about the influence of intentionally working with these emotions on the mental functioning of parents even beyond the explanatory confines of emotion regulation. This study also introduces measurement instruments used to capture emotional labour and its dimensions. For future research of emotional labour in parenthood, creating a valid and reliable instrument, which has so far been lacking both in the Czech and international contexts, is a necessity.


Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110374
Author(s):  
Cornelia Schadler

An analysis of parents that are a part of polyamorous networks—networks of three, four, or even more residential or highly available parents—shows three types of parenting practices: poly-nuclear, hierarchical, and egalitarian parenting. Especially, the hierarchical and egalitarian parenting practices show novel divisions of care work and a transgression of gender norms. However, in-depth new materialist analysis of qualitative interviews also shows how parents are, in specific situations, pushed toward standard family models and thus unintentionally maintain traditional family structures and gender roles.


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