An Untenable Workload: COVID- 19 and the Disproportionate Impact on Women's Work-Family Demands

Abstract

In January 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged as a global concern and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 (WH0, 2020). The Canadian government responded with directives encouraging people to wear masks and practice physical distancing, along with a shelter-in-place order implemented mid-March (Terry, 2020). Employers scrambled to respond with new workfrom-home policies and universities were expeditiously transitioned from face-to-face course delivery to online delivery. Primary and secondary schools and childcare facilities also closed mid-March per the government directives (Franklin, 2020). These unprecedented events resulted in employees working from home (if feasible) and professors and students transitioning to online classes, thus having to adapt to new technology (See et al., 2020) while parenting and home-schooling children.