Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 22 Issue 5

Nowmi Nowrin Abstract- The aspiration to succeed in career and simultaneously manage the demands of family which with the birth and looking after of children gets higher and it is much harder for women. This work-family clash becomes a consequential source of conflict and it’s a challenge for the women to strike a balance. The purpose of this paper is to understand the work-life challenges of women working in the banking industry in this pandemic situation by looking at the initial literature and linking it to the current state through in- depth interviews. In this pandemic everyone is facing tough situations and changes that they have never faced and life is currently unpredictable for everyone regardless of their gender. Women working on the front line like banks and heath care sector are facing a lot of pressure due to this pandemic. Commuting long distances and traveling to offices and dealing with people in this time of highly contagious virus put these women working in banks under tremendous stress, as going back home they have to take of their children and other domestic chores and this puts their family members at high risk too. The lack of time spent with family, lesser scope of recreation in this time of pandemic and high work load is adding more stress to these female corporate professionals. Keywords: work life balance, female professionals, pandemic, challenge . I. B ackground of the S tudy ow in this fast-paced world conflict between work and other facet of life has become a very serious issue. Work-family conflict (WFC) is a general universal issue regardless of the countries and traditions around the whole world. Nevertheless, the nature of it is probably different and distinct in different countries with their various cultural features.(Ambreen Khursheed, Faisal Mustafa, Iqra Arshad, Sharoon Gill, 2019). The work-life conflict or the absence of work-life balance in this current context and pandemic situation is rough and the women working in banks are hit hard by this. The capability to set apart the non-work and work-life has been seriously eroded. This, disparity has serious consequences. For the individual it is the serious lack of balanced stress-free mental state, well-being which has led to worsening of its results. This is why because when Author: e-mail: nowminowrin627@gmail.com the employees struggle to strike balance between their work and family lives, their families and work will be negatively affected ( J.G. Carlson, D.S, 2007). COVID-19 predicament is not only a health crisis but an economic setback and a social one, too. COVID-19 is foreseen to have major effect on the families, as a outcome of increased childcare housework and which arose from the closing of schools, nurseries and absence of helping hands. Many women are already finding it hard to make it to work at all in this situation. Preliminary there is evidence from Spain (Farré, L., and L. González, April 23, 2020) and from the UK which shows that there has been a major shift towards a more uniform distribution childcare and domestic responsibilities between men and women, but mostly the extra work that is caused due to the crisis has fallen on the women. (Sevilla A., and S. Smith) So, for both the organization and individual work life balance has become a huge question of survival specifically in the current testing times. It is in this framework that the Researcher have suggested a study to explore and find more about the condition of the women working in banks of Dhaka city in this time of COVID-19 pandemic. As the situation is still new and these working women are also adjusting and getting used to the new changes and adapting themselves with this new normal, the Researcher tried to explore and know more about the situations and conditions that these women are facing and the challenges they are going through in this time in the Bangladesh’s Context. II. S tatement of P roblem Pandemics and outbreaks have different impacts on men and women. According to Moser (1993) gender analysis framework, women’s vulnerabilities are worsened during the times of disaster, such as famine, disease outbreak, war and natural disaster. At the time of disease outbreaks, women have to endure additional load related with paid and unpaid work, often without the thought of reliving other life responsibilities. Women’s extra workload in this current context of the coronavirus disease, Covid-19, are same. Even though lifesaving, the Covid-19 lockdown is unequally impacting N 63 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue V Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals An Exploratory Study on the Challenges Confronted by the Female Corporate Professionals Working in Banks to Maintain Balance in Work-Life during Pandemic