Work-Family Conflicts among Female Staff of Higher Institutions in Nigeria

Abstract

The responsibilities of a typical African woman in family upkeep are enormous, ranging from house chores, cooking to child-care and so on. Striking a balance and maintaining harmony between work and family have always been a great challenge for women in general. This paper examines factors that conflict between official responsibilities and family demand among female staff of higher institution of learning in Nigeria. Structured questionnaires were administered to selected female staff of higher institutions across the country. Hierarchical sampling technique was used to select female staff from a university, a polytechnic, and a college of education in six states of the country (one state per geopolitical zone in the country). Simple percentage and bar charts were used to present the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. The mean responses for each factor were ranked and the first four ranked factors are discussed. All Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceed 0.800 thresholds, validating all factors considered. Long working hours, inadequate working facilities and inadequate pay are major factors that cause conflicts between work and family among the respondents. Stress, mental fatigue and psychological burnout/disorder are the major effects observed while resuming and closing work at convenience is the major mechanism being used by women in tertiary institutions. Other highly ranked mechanisms are: using house keeper/help, using childcare centre closer to workplace, and help from colleagues in carrying out official assignments.

Keywords: Work, Family, Conflicts, Female, Tertiary, Institution.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-27-09

Publication date:September 30^th 2020