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

families have reached out to help this woman, but unfortunately, this number is negligible and most of the women are working hard to fulfill their responsibilities. Managing your home and work has always been the goal of many people, women manage it in their own way, but this balance is currently breaking down. f) Less supportive eco system The ecosystem that made it possible for the woman to go to work and at the same time manage their children and their household, was mainly depending on their community. Where those supporting resources were lacking, the working women made a way around it to manage their lives and careers. But now this pandemic has hugely unsettled that ecosystem balance and made it harder for the working women so they are grappling to keep a balance in their daily life. While a very few numbers of progressive households are acquainting themselves with terms like work from home dads taking on majority of the house hold responsibility but from my interviews I saw that the number is very low even when the dads were trying to help, they couldn’t really. When in older times men went to war and proudly wore the badges, women braced themselves and took on the role of men in their house hold and supported their soldier partners in every way that they could. Unfortunately, todays working woman in that contrast has been solely lonely because our society can’t still see women holding an important position in family of social life. Working women are a very significant part of the financial position of a household. So, how the childcare, everyday meals, household chores, education and activities of the children, and health of the household issues are handled and managed in the new post pandemic world, is a very important question that cannot be taken in a light manner. Can we hope for those households and well as the society where we have working women to step up and actively be involved, rather than leaving these silently suffering and burning out women to fend themselves. g) Burden of Norms and expectations In our country the burden of expectation is very high for women they are expected to do everything as the women of their earlier generations were doing even when they are doing a full-time job. Every day they are compared and blamed for anything that didn’t match with the expectations of family and society. These age- old customs and norms of being a perfect daughter, mother and wife is constantly pulling them down and creating a doubt within themselves that maybe they aren’t a great mother, daughter or a wife which is creating a feeling of dissatisfaction within themselves and that negatively affects their work life as well. According to the respondents this pandemic made it even more difficult because their children being home all the time, disrupted regular life routine, extra pressure of work, lack of support system is making it really difficult for them One of the respondents Mrs. Rukaiya (not real name) said- “Everyone is ready to judge how I am handling my children, taking care of my family or risking my family’s health by doing my job in this pandemic and throws the question ‘Why are you still doing your job?’ even when I am a fully qualified professional and has been doing my job for years, they try to limit me on a specific care giving role just because of my gender “ So, the battle of family versus job is at really creating problems for the women employees working in banks h) Monotonous routine Covid 19 has caused people to lead a monotonous life, and people live the same day over and over again. Especially for professional women who work both at home and in the office, this becomes boring and leads to irritability and frustration. Since they have become accustomed to their dynamic daily life and vacations, going out with friends, going out with family, shopping, due to this pandemic, now all these have stopped, and find it difficult to adapt to this new daily life, so they are Create stress and different psychological problems. i) Stress Many professional women said that in this epidemic, in addition to housework and other activities, without the strong support of their partners, the pressure of doing office work is particularly high, so it is an additional burden. The children who used to go to school were at home, which created harsh conditions for these women. Since the house is a small and confined space, people stay at home all day, which leads to a lack of emotional space for everyone. And because of this epidemic, many interviewees said that their children are more annoyed, and they themselves sometimes feel irritable today. Thus, along with the constant anxiety of contacting this virus anytime, extra work load in office and home and everyone’s touchy nature is creating a not so healthy environment which is adding to the stress. Due to anxiety and stress, women are facing health issues and change in sleep patterns is also a common occurrence according to the respondents in this pandemic. j) Lack of me time and relaxation Previously all the working women had a specific routine they used to follow with all the additional help they could get from different supporting hands the respondents said that could make time for themselves specially in the weekends but now due to the lack of An Exploratory study on the Challenges Confronted by the Female Corporate Professionals Working in Banks to Maintain Balance in Work-Life during Pandemic 71 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue V Version I Year 2022 ( ) A © 2022 Global Journals