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Introduction
Nigeria epitomises a typical patriarchal African society in which a system of social stratification and gender differentiation enable men to dominate women in all spheres of life. Patriarchal hegemony or what Connell (2005, p. 830) referred to as “hegemonic masculinity” has a huge impact on social hierarchy and women’s activities, specifically in the global south Through the lens of patriarchy, this article uses semi-structured interviews with women who are engaged in full-time work and who also have private life commitments (including domestic and care responsibilities) to investigate women’s work-life balance (WLB) in an extremely patriarchal society, Nigeria. This paper contributes to the contemporary debate on women, work, non-work obligations and the issue of WLB and gender (Sorensen, 2017).
One of the most striking phenomena of the twenty-first century has been the increase in women’s participation in the labour market (Cortes, 2018). Researchers have noted that the stereotypes of male breadwinners and female homemakers are fast disappearing, with women now contributing as much as men to the family purse (Zuo and Tang, 2000; Trappe et al., 2015). This requires women to combine and balance their work and non-work obligations.
This situation often leads more women to experience a high level of role overload and caregiving strain (Duxbury and Higgins, 2008). Furthermore, research has indicated that women often experience less spousal support than their male counterparts (De Klerk and Mostert, 2010). Therefore, helping women to achieve a satisfactory balance between their work and personal life has become paramount for human resources management (Beham et al., 2012).
Although WLB is important to both men and women (Emslie et al., 2004; Doble and Supriya, 2010), economically active women tend to need it more than their male counterparts due to their familial and care responsibilities for children and other elderly dependents (Bardoel et al., 1999). This explains why some researchers have argued that gender is central to WLB (Sullivan and Lewis, 2001; Pillinger, 2002). However, in Nigeria’s extremely patriarchal context, where women constitute almost half of the country’s population, research on the impact of patriarchy on women’s WLB is rare. Patriarchy is hugely entrenched in Nigerian society in terms of norms, values and customs that separating it from life and culture is unthinkable for many...