Negotiating spaces, exercising agency and managing multiple roles: The lived experiences of University of Ghana women academics under COVID-19

Abstract

This article interrogates the lived experiences of women academics at the University of Ghana (UG) between March 2020 and March 2021. It highlights their emotions and care decisions as they navigated through the multiple spheres of their lives – physical, emotional, and financial – while meeting the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. It further interrogates the innovative ways female academics handled the state and UG’s responses to COVID-19 protocols while endeavouring to meet their career responsibilities amidst an increased familial, institutional, and community care burden. We find that women academics at UG reported to have worked under intense stress and strain to meet their family care obligations and the demands of their jobs as three levels of mothering – biological, othermothering and community mothering – dominated participants’ narratives of their pandemic experiences. It is also observed that self-reported productivity levels, including research and writing, dropped drastically for most women academics as demands for care increased, and this lack of productivity resulted in anxiety. This is because the women academics prioritised the safety of their families, communities, and the University over their career progression during the lockdown. Moreover, the COVID19 restrictions limited extended family members from reducing the care burden on women academics specifically during the lockdown. To deal with the anxiety and stress, some women academics found respite in institutional and social level networks. However, the women academics also acknowledged that working from home was beneficial because they were able to combine their childcare responsibilities with their academic work.