IN SEARCH OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE: ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC CHALLENGES CONFRONTING WOMEN IN BANKING AND MANAGEMENT CONSULTING FIRMS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In this study, I explore the challenges that hinder married women’s access to work-life balance as they juggle between family and work roles. The research shows that long working hours, competitive workplace, and unstable economy in Nigeria prevent married women who work in the banking and management consulting firms' from achieving work-life balance.

However, research findings fail to support the contention that gender stereotyping in the workplace and cultural perceptions of gender roles in the home prevents women from achieving work-life balance. Based on the findings of the study, factors such as evolving workplace practice, self-stigma, and male-identified organizational structure could be responsible for the failure of women’s achievement of work-life balance. It is important to point out that this study primarily focuses on the banking firms and secondarily on the management consulting firms. I chose the banking sector as a primary sector because there are extant studies on work-life balance in this sector in Nigeria and management consulting as the secondary sector. Based on personal research findings, there are no studies on the work-life balance phenomenon in the management consulting sector in Nigeria.

The works of scholars on the evolution of gender equality in Nigeria and Africa purports that colonization (1800-1960) engendered women’s restriction from public labor.1 Although, they as well note that Islamic religion subjugated women in Islamized regions of Nigeria and Africa. Oyeronke Oyewunmi notes that in the pre-colonial Yoruba (southwest Nigeria) society, “aya” pursued their own livelihoods working in different places as farmers, hunters, and traders.2 However, the restriction placed on women by colonial and Islamic structures affected women’s participation in the public sphere and as well, displaced women from trading and farming, which were the labor market structure of pre-colonial and pre-Islam Nigeria. Thus, women alone engaged in domestic labor. This domestic labor includes the care and nurturing roles women perform in the home.

By the twentieth century, the narrative of women restriction changed with the emergence of women into the labor force in Nigeria and globally. As a result, women had multiple roles which thus allowed women to commit to both the paid labor (career) and unpaid labor (family care). Women’s engagement in both public and domestic labor augmented women’s labor and obligation. This facilitated a dual perception of women’s role and negatively affected career women’s achievement of work-life balance.

Nigerian work-life balance scholars such as Babatunde Akanji, Tinuke Fapohunda, Chima Mordi, Fredrick Mmieh, and Stella Ibiyinka Ojo identify role conflicts, gender discrimination, role gendering, and access to work-friendly policies as some of the major challenges that hinder women’s achievement to work-life balance in Nigeria. 3 These scholars also evidence that these challenges hinder women’s career progression. Through the examination of lived experiences, this study unravels the challenges that hinder the work-life balance of career women working in the banking and management consulting firms in Nigeria. It also evaluates the implications of work-life imbalance and coping strategies. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate how organizational work culture and economic imbalance affect married women’s achievement of work-life balance. It as well discusses how organizations adopt work-friendly policies to advance women’s inclusion in the Nigerian labor sector.

This introduction contains a historical overview of Yoruba women’s participation in labor and feminist movement in Nigeria, with additions from southeast Nigeria. It also discusses the definitions of work-life balance, the research questions, and the significance of the study. Some of the resources consulted for this study are scholarly articles and website sources.