Life at Home During COVID-19
By Yumna Salman
CEPA’s 63rd Open Forum was held on the 16th of February 2021 via Zoom and Facebook Live. The virtual discussion was centred on two studies, by CEPA and Asha Abeyasekera, both looking at ‘life at home’ during COVID-19.
The presenters at the Open Forum were Gayathri Lokuge, Nadhiya Najab and Asha L Abeyasekera, with Madhavie Gunawardena being the discussant and Chandima Arambepola as the moderator.
The forum brought about fruitful discussions and unique perspectives, ending with an array of questions that each presenter got the chance to answer with their expertise and opinions, drawing ideas from the studies they conducted.
The exploratory research study from CEPA looked at how families with young children were faced with the challenges of care responsibilities brought about by the movement restrictions imposed due to COVID-19. Data for the study were collected in two waves, the study was conceptualised and conducted during wave 1, from March to May 2020, and wave 2 was conducted between November and December. Information was gathered through a quantitative survey, shared on social media, to capture the experiences and perspectives of those with access to web-based platforms. The 1st wave saw a response of 466, while the second wave had 81 respondents. At the forum, the focus was the on the quantitative component but there was also a qualitative component to the study during both waves.
CEPA’s Gayathri Lokuge spoke of the gendered nature of COVID-19 related impacts, the tasks divided, and how individuals coped with the shift to remote working and distance learning. With case studies, examples and statistics, Gayathri explained the mental impact, such as the increase in feelings of tension and anxiety, due to the loss of ‘me-time’, for both men and women.
Nadhiya Najab dived a little deeper highlighted the gendered nature of the division of household and childcare responsibilities and distance learning. The ‘COVID push’, Nadhiya explained, is the term used to illustrate the change in participation in household responsibilities, which saw an increase in male participation during the first lockdown in Sri Lanka, in 2020. Nevertheless, with the arrival of the second wave, Nadhiya showed the audience how the division of labour became bigger and the responsibility of childcare fell back greatly on women.
“Parents have had to be more engaged than ever before- particularly with younger children. COVID-19 has bought an additional responsibility.”
Nadhiya Najab
Asha Abeyasekera’s study draws from diary entries of urban middle-class women during the island-wide curfew from March to May 2020. Asha reflected on how middle-class mothers managed family and household responsibilities, and why schedules and routines provided indispensable mechanisms through which women coped with life at home. Asha described how mothers diarised the relentless demands on their time from supervising schoolwork to monitoring screen-time to cooking three meals and keeping the house clean. Rather than complain, she explained how women present themselves as ‘organisers-in-chief’ and the importance they placed on mothering by carving out time to spend time with their children. Asha also pointed out that, unlike women in working-class homes, having a home with separate bedrooms and living areas allowed middle-class mothers to carve time for themselves amidst an exhausting schedule. However, the imploding of time and space within the home during COVID-19, she reflected, has an impact on mental health and wellbeing,
“Our homes have now become our office, gym, work and school.
We need to reflect on what the pandemic has done to the space
that we call ‘home’?”
Dr Asha Abeyasekera
All three presenters stressed how the pandemic has exacerbated the unequal gendered division of labour in households.
Madhavie Gunawardena, the discussant for the event, spoke of increasing female labour force participation and the need for flexible laws and policies, which are further made complicated by the issues raised in the presentations. Madhavie made clear that unless the supporting factors and hands are given to our females, it is not going to be easy even with the introduction of flexibility. She explained how the network around a female must be strengthened first,
At the end of the presentation, Chandima Arambepola raised a few crucial questions on the policy responses, if the pandemic has taught us anything, what women’s roles look like and the kind of support women need? Chandima went on to ask the speakers how men have had to re-visit their roles during the pandemic within the household and family, and how they have coped with the change in their experiences.
Each speaker then responded to the questions Chandima and the audience posed. The discussions at the Open Forum provided several ideas and suggestions for the future, including how policies must be changed, what we can learn from the pandemic and how to ensure the existing gender gap will narrow.
CEPA’s 63rd Open Forum was conducted virtually and shed some much-needed light on household work and responsibilities, what the future entails and how far-reaching change can be brought about for men, women, and children during and after the pandemic.
Watch the Open Forum: https://fb.watch/3RzSbOKIvj/
