Gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-method study of teacher stress and work-life balance

ABSTRACT

There is a growing concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionate impacts on women, especially those with children. Female educators, and, in particular, those with childcare responsibilities, have also reported higher levels of stress and work-life challenges as compared to their male counterparts. It is unclear exactly which factors are behind these disparities. However, while some have pointed to the gendered division of domestic labor as the main contributor, other pandemic-related and work-related stressors may be involved in female educators’ increased stress levels and work-life balance challenges. To address this question, this mixed-methods research draws on survey data gathered from 752 educators across New York State. Findings demonstrate that women reported higher levels of stress and work-life balance challenges than their male counterparts. While quantitative analyses indicated that gender disparities in work-life balance challenges were related to the higher stress women experienced from work and COVID-19 rather than childcare responsibilities, qualitative analyses of open-ended survey responses revealed that childcare duties were nonetheless an important factor impacting work-life balance challenges for both men and women. This article has significant implications for the teaching profession and adds broader insights into the gendered effects of the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Teachers
• gender equity
• childcare
• schooling
• domestic labor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article relies on the American Psychological Association’s (2019) guidelines for reporting gender in research. Recognizing that gender is a socially-constructed category, the terms used in these article are based on participants’ own self-identification.

2 NYKids Discovering Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Methods and Procedures Report. https://nykids.org/nykids-covid-study-methods-final/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aaron Leo

Aaron Leo is Assistant Director of Research at NYKids, a research-practice partnership housed in the School of Education at the University at Albany, SUNY. Dr. Leo is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on the education of newly-arrived immigrants and refugees. His scholarly interests center around social class disparities among new arrivals and the ways in which newcomers manage pressures to assimilate.

Elizabeth A. Holdsworth

Elizabeth Holdsworth is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University. Her research focuses on how culture affects human health, particularly health disparities and psychosocial stress. I explore how sociocultural constructions such as inequality become embodied and affect human biology for generations through alterations in the growth and development of physiological systems.

Kristen C. Wilcox

Kristen Campbell Wilcox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership, University at Albany, State University of New York and Research and Development Director of the research-practice partnership called NYKids. Her research focuses on identifying and describing the characteristics of schools and districts that successfully close opportunity gaps among socioeconomically, linguistically, and culturally diverse learners in P-12 school settings.

Maria I. Khan

Maria I. Khan is the Research Coordinator for NYKids, University at Albany, State University of New York. Her research focuses on K-16 education policy, improvement science, student success, education leadership, systemness and international educational development.

José Antonio Mola Ávila

Jose Antonio Mola-Avila is a Graduate Student and Assistant in the Department of Educational Policy and Leadership, University at Albany, State University of New York. He is also a consultant for the Education Unit of the World Bank and the Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar. His research interests are impact evaluation and measurements in education.

Jessie Tobin

Jessie Tobin is a graduate student of Educational Policy and Leadership at the University at Albany, SUNY. Her professional and research interests focus on finding innovative ways to increase equity in education through school and community partnerships.