Challenges Of Work-Life-Balance During The Sars-Cov-2 Pandemic : Case study: Female professionals and their digital media practices

Abstract: The concept of work-life-balance has gained significant attention during the coronavirus pandemic. There are challenges in keeping solid boundaries between Danish female professionals work and private life. There have been previous studies that have demonstrated gendered roles of females that interrupt work and private life. This thesis builds on these qualitative studies. This is done by providing new insights into the challenges experienced by Danish females in balancing their work-life due to varying degrees of media dependencies when exposed to new digital practices (current pandemic). Therefore, the main research question is, “How and why do Danish female professionals experience fluid transitions between professional work and private life, with the increase of new forms of media dependencies?” The study consisted of eight semi-structured interviews with Danish female participants followed by a qualitative approach. Thoroughly employing social design in a mediatization framework, key themes in the experiences of the participants; work-life-balance, flexibility at work, virtual fatigue and self-care practices were extracted. The study also found that there are gendered roles during the coronavirus pandemic, with women shouldering a greater burden due to unpaid labour. The findings of this work provide deeper insights into the challenges females may endure during national lockdowns. It is envisioned that this work will allow for deeper reflections on the usage and consumption of digital media in keeping boundaries between work-private life. This includes Denmark and other countries. /p>