Work-Family Conflict During the Pandemic Induced State of Emergency in Serbia: The Female Perspective

Work-family conflict (WFC) has major consequences for both work and personal life outcomes, especially for women. The COVID-19 pandemic has set the stage for deepening the already existing gender gaps, especially in the semi-peripheral societies, such as Serbia. We argue that working from home during the pandemic-induced state of emergency aggravated the WFC among working women. To collect data, we applied mixed research plan on a sample of 265 women. Results showed that women who worked from home experienced a greater WFC than usual since they had to play professional and family roles simultaneously. Being a sort of social crises, COVID-19 pandemic and state of emergency led to over-exploitation of female resources and instrumentalization of family relations. Furthermore, the intensity of the WFC was shaped by both women’s personal characteristics and their family/household’s features.