Exploring the Gendered Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Staff in Tanzania

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a serious interruption to all sectors and communities. This study Explored the Gendered Effects on the COVID-19 Pandemic on academic staff. Specifically learning about academics’ lived experiences methodology during COVID-19 and how care and coping mechanisms impacted research activities and work-life balance. Interview guide was used to collect data from participants and Feminist Relational Theoretical Approach was used to uncover the governing norms and practices that sustain inequalities of various sorts. The result indicated gendered differences, which caused by lockdown and academics moving to a work-from-home model that resulted in both male and female researchers facing competing demands between their professional and personal roles. Lockdown directly increased the need to spend time on parenting, homeschooling, and other caring duties. Yet noted persistent patriarchal structures leading women to provide care in the home and being expected to balance this work with their professional roles. Thus, a narrative swiftly emerged suggesting that female academics were distinctly disadvantaged by COVID-19 lockdowns and closures, as these public health measures pushed the responsibility for caring and education back into the household. Such findings can then be used to develop policy recommendations for further public health measures that can be developed for COVID-19 and other pandemics that might arise in the future that do not negatively affect one gender over another.