Finding balance while the pendulum swings: An exploration of work-life balance among academic parents in Iceland during COVID-19

• Main Author: Soffia Louise Baragar 1989-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Félagsfræði; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/39854

On 28 February 2020, the COVID-19 causing virus appeared in Iceland in the midst of its precipitous spread across the globe. At the time of writing, over a year of living in a pandemic state of emergency has passed. One distinctive social component of the pandemic is the momentous change that has ensued surrounding reductions in access to delegated childcare and children’s education external to the reproductive sphere or private family domain. Another is the significant increase in use of flexible working hours, telecommuting and online work connected to the paid labour market aimed at allowing more work to be conducted from home. By means of examining current literature, insights of and debates within critical Marxist and feminist theory, and drawing on original data collected from interviews, this thesis aims to contribute toward understanding how increases in use of flexible working hours, telecommuting, and online work during the COVID-19 pandemic may be influencing wellbeing, family dynamics, time-use and work-family reconciliation among employed parents working in academia in Iceland. In helping to elucidate the ‘work’ and ‘life’ balance dilemma, and exploring how it has been influenced by the pandemic, implications of the COVID-19 crisis for work-life balance, labour sociology and gender theory and knowledge are explored. Findings indicate that the pandemic has exacerbated difficulties for workers to ‘turn off’ from paid work and has acted as a catalyst for both increasing and decreasing differing aspects of gendered labour relations. Keywords: academia, care, COVID-19, gender, time, Western welfare state, work-life balance NordForsk/NORDICORE.