The Challenges of Working at Home for Women Working in an Institution of Higher Education:

Paid and Unpaid Work in Times of the Pandemic work in times of pandemic

Abstract

The interest of the document is to reflect on the experience of working at home of a group of women during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period in which faceto-face activities and areas of professional, domestic, and caregiving responsibility were restricted. they overcame them by imposing a greater workload on women. The work methodology sought to retrieve direct information from women, for which a questionnaire was designed that inquired about the hours of paid and unpaid work, the type of activities that were carried out, and the challenges identified facing the eventual return to work, which was announced without certainty. 33 women between the ages of 29 and 62, who collaborated in the same higher education institution participated voluntarily, anonymously, and confidentially. The results obtained allowed identifying a work overload of the women, mostly in those who lived with minors under their care in this period. Among the activities they carried out, the following stand out: paid work, domestic activities, and caregiving activities for others, which include organization of daily life, emotional support for other family members, and caregiving responsibilities that included minors, people with disabilities, and other adults.