Work-life balance in the face of COVID-19; The gendered impact

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of gender roles on the experiences of work-life balance. Striking a balance between work and life is an everyday challenge for individuals in the world of work. The COVID-19 pandemic has familiarised the concept “work from home”. Working from home has become the new norm in a bid to conquer the pandemic and maintain economic stability. However, this new development presents its own challenges. The introduction of working from home has brought to light a challenge that still lives among us, though subtly, but believed to be overcome on the surface: the issue of gender inequality. This paper employed the Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis as a theoretical lens and used the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis for research methodology through analysis of selected images of men and women on the internet that depict work-life balance. The results showed that gender inequalities remain evident in our societies as most women still struggle more with work-life balance in comparison to men due to the gendered social orders that are sustained through ideologies in discourse.