Burdens Role of Working Women during the Time of Corona: A Qualitative Sociological Study on a Sample of Working Women in the UAE Society

Mohammed  AL Hourani; Fatima  Algharbawi

doi:10.35516/hum.v49i6.3729

Authors

Mohammed AL Hourani Department of Sociology, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates; Department of Sociology and Social Service, Faculty of Arts, Yarmouk University, Jordan
Fatima Algharbawi 2 Department of Sociology, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v49i6.3729

Keywords:

COVID-19, working women, United Arab Emirates

Abstract

This study explores the burdens of employed women’s roles during the time of the coronavirus. The study has considered burdens that associate with the role obligations of working women such as: the husband's work from home, woman's work from home, home duties, marital relationship demands, woman self-care, and homeschooling, in addition to how women managed these burdens and the attached tensions. The current study utilized qualitative method by using an in-depth-interview with 30 (N=30) working women in UAE. The results showed that the COVID-19 crisis has deepened the gender gap regarding home duties, also the burdens often women have increased in all domains of daily life including working hard to facilitate husband work from home. However, men were only responsible for their traditional formal work. In addition, lived experiences of women showed that they have suffered pressures and tensions that are attached to these burdens. Nevertheless, women have not employed a strategy to manage the situation as much as they adapt to it.

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