Abstract
Digitalization and shifting trends in new and emerging technologies have been rapidly transforming organizations in recent years, triggering changes to the nature of work and workplaces. Despite growing concerns about the impact of such changes on many people's livelihoods and well-being, there is still a lack of micro- and meso-level understanding of how digital disruption affects workers. There are also only a handful of investigations that analyze the issue through a gendered or feminist lens, which is a rising and pressing issue. The increasing pervasiveness of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the rise of digitally-enabled work/working from home (WFH) arrangements amidst the COVID-19 pandemic are bound to affect mothers’ work-life balance as they juggle family obligations with work commitments. Given the constraints arising from the pandemic, such arrangements can bring about greater flexibility, productivity, and empowerment, but they can also potentially introduce additional challenges and add layers to the many pre-existing struggles that working mothers face. Amidst digital transformation, mothers as workers are also likely to be affected by the ongoing digital disruptions in workplaces—having to learn and adopt new workplace technologies, coping with changing tasks, work processes, and systems, along with concerns about being equipped with the relevant skills to remain employable. Altogether, this transitional period can be extremely stressful and demanding for working mothers, who are already struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance due to the many pressures they experience both in the workplace and at home. Despite all of these potential effects, there is still insufficient research that focuses exclusively on mothers’ work-life experiences of digital disruption in the context of the pandemic. This research thus sought to address the following questions: • RQ1: How does digital disruption amidst the pandemic impact mothers’ ability to balance family obligations and with work commitments? • RQ2: What are some key factors that are found to affect mothers’ work-life experiences in times of digital disruption? • RQ3: How can different stakeholders—governments, employers and families—better support mothers’ work and employment in times of digital disruption? The main fieldwork takes the form of an ethnographic investigation involving interviews with 41 working mothers in Singapore of different personal and professional backgrounds and “task-technology-context” diary recordings with 31 of these mothers. This study sought to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of mothers’ lived experiences and gendered impacts of digitalization amidst the pandemic by drawing upon two important bodies of literature, from diverse fields, including sociology, communication, organizational, and gender studies. It synthesizes work-family theories, concepts, and research with others on the relationship between working mothers and technology, remote work, digitalization, and the pandemic. Furthermore, my study adopts an intersectional feminist approach, which not only recognizes the diversity among mothers and the complexities of their struggles but also sheds light on the power structures and dimensions of intersecting inequalities. The findings from the ethnographic study revealed that mothers’ ability to juggle family obligations and work commitments was affected by a confluence of work- and domestic-related tensions. In the work domain, mothers struggled to navigate the abrupt shift to working from home, such as the i) lack of comfortable and conducive working space at home and ii) steep learning curve and connectivity issues that come with adapting to the changes in digital and remote ways of doing work. Mothers also shared challenges stemming from the increasingly blurred boundaries between work and home facilitated by digitalization, including i) rising work expectations, working longer, and overworking tendencies, ii) changes to communication, work dynamics, and increased feelings of isolation, iii) increasing yet never-ending workload and increased supervision, as well as iv) managerial challenges faced in the transition to digital remote work. In the domestic domain, all of the studied mothers experienced an increase in unpaid workload due to the presence of family members and children at home during the pandemic. However, the study found that the gendered struggles in reconciling paid labor and unpaid care work differ depending on the mothers’ family structure, life stage, and situation, with each set of circumstances presenting idiosyncratic needs, constraints, or additional responsibilities. In particular, the study found several themes relating to the domestic tensions and layered challenges that mothers face, including their struggles in juggling paid work with the (i) increased and compounded caregiving burden of younger children, (ii) increased mental load and gendered inequalities in balancing work, housework, and caregiving, (iii) presence of additional support versus single motherhood, (iv) partners’ WFH status and unrealistic gendered expectations, and (v) sandwich generational challenges. While digitalization and technology have provided some mothers with solutions to help achieve flexibility, fulfillment, and support, this study also highlighted unintended consequences, including the dangers of excessive screentime, conflicting feelings of guilt, and risk of struggling to keep pace with technological advancements. The patterns at home and at work that have emerged suggest that larger issues are at play, facilitated by digitalization. These include the expansion of the work sphere, persistence and internalization of ideal worker norms, conflicts with intensive mothering ideals, and the continued prevalence of corporate/employer colonization of mothers' private lives. Despite these, mothers still viewed technology as empowering and are in favor of WFH even beyond the pandemic. Mothers also found ways to overcome difficulties faced, including the use of time, space, behavior, communication, and technology as strategies to delineate work–life boundaries and cope better. Nevertheless, mothers’ WFH experiences were not only dependent on individual factors, such as digital confidence and boundary management strategies undertaken. They were also influenced by contextual factors such as work-related factors (e.g. managerial trust, supportive leadership, job autonomy, flexibility, and control) and family-related factors (e.g. the age of children and level of spousal support). Taken together, the study contributes rich insights into mothers’ work-life and boundary management experiences in times of digitalization and the pandemic. For one, the study revealed compelling evidence that highlights the prevalence of work-family conflicts amongst working mothers in the face of such phenomena. Digitalization and the pandemic have not only increased the demands and expectations placed on working women in both the work and family domains. The study demonstrates how the increased blurring of work and family boundaries, facilitated by ICTs, WFH, and pandemic-related constraints, have inadvertently increased the likelihood of interference, spillover, and conflicts between work and family roles and responsibilities. As a result, the demands on women as mothers, daughters, wives, and workers have become more complex and overlapping, making it challenging for them to balance their duties effectively. Moreover, the study illuminates the complex and multifaceted struggles that working mothers face, highlighting how their work-life and boundary management experiences are shaped by a confluence of factors at the individual-, work-, and family-level. The study, situated in Singapore, also emphasizes the importance of macro-societal contexts in consideration of the diverse challenges and support mechanisms in place that affect mothers in balancing paid employment and unpaid care work. To name a few, factors such as WFH in compact homes and multigenerational/densely-populated households, having multiple caregiving responsibilities, and presence/absence of extended family support and home-based domestic help stood out in their impact on mothers in the current study. Given that digitalization and WFH are likely to become a more common feature of the future of work, the study's insights can provide practical solutions for workers to adapt and maintain their productivity and well-being. The study also makes a significant contribution to the ongoing discourse on the complex relationship between mothers, technology, work, and care. It not only sheds light on the gendered and paradoxical experiences that working mothers have with technology and WFH in the context of digitalization and the pandemic. The research also highlights that despite the substantial work-life and technological changes brought about by such phenomena, the underlying gender dynamics and power relations in both the home and workplace have remained largely unchanged and have even added new layers of complexity and challenges for working mothers to navigate. These imbalances can have significant implications for women's employment opportunities, career advancement, and participation, further exacerbating the existing gender inequalities that mothers face in the workplace. Thus, it is imperative for governments, employers, and families to recognize and address the different inequalities in the balance between paid work and unpaid work and promote greater awareness and support. The study thus concludes with a discussion on policy and support mechanisms, workplace practices, and strategies that can go towards supporting working women of diverse backgrounds and fostering a more inclusive future of work.