Citation: Lafkas, S.M.; Christensen, M.; Madsen, S.R. The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Work: Career Advancement Challenges. Merits 2023, 3, 167–185. https:// doi.org/10.3390/merits3010011 Academic Editor: Wendy M. Purcell Received: 7 November 2022 Revised: 16 February 2023 Accepted: 20 February 2023 Published: 22 February 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Article The Impact of COVID-19 on Women and Work: Career Advancement Challenges Sara McPhee Lafkas 1, * , Marin Christensen 2 and Susan R. Madsen 3 1 Winston School of Education and Social Policy, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA 01845, USA 2 Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA 3 Department of Marketing and Strategy, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA * Correspondence: lafkass@merrimack.edu Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic upended countless lives all over the world. Considerable research has shown that women’s career progression has been more negatively impacted by the pandemic than men’s, especially in the wake of school closures and increased childcare responsibilities. In order to understand more deeply the impact of the pandemic on women’s careers, a large mixed-method survey was conducted in Utah, a western state in the United States. This article reports on the responses of 2564 respondents to one of three open-ended questions taken from the overall survey, namely: “How has the pandemic impacted your career advancement experiences and opportunities over the short term and longer term?” The article frames the findings of this question by outlining workplace conditions and structures that contributed to women not advancing prior to the pandemic and applies the lenses of identity theory and systems psychodynamic theory to illustrate tendencies for workers and organizations to maintain the gendered dynamics that impede women’s career advancement. Findings included 59.1 percent of respondents who described a negative effect on their career advancement caused by the pandemic. Overarching themes and sub-themes were identified from these negative effects. Overarching themes included: (1) “Everything is on hold”; (2) “Lost or relinquished opportunity”; (3) “Reevaluation of Career”; and (4) “Experiences by Characteristics.” The latter theme highlighted unique experiences women faced versus men and manifested the gendered dynamics identified by identity and psychodynamic theories. Findings highlighted the importance of making workplace changes such as more flexible work and/or hybrid work arrangements, improved leave policies, the provision of childcare and other support services, and government policies that eliminate gendered barriers to women’s career advancement. Keywords: gender roles; identity theory; systems psychodynamic theory 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global community in significant ways since its inception in 2020. The United Nations [1] asserted that the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened preexisting inequalities across every sphere, including the global economy. Research has also found that the pandemic has more negatively impacted women than men. For example, Cerullo [2] stated that nearly three million American women left the labor force during the first year of the pandemic, and many have not returned [3]. While a number of pre-pandemic studies discussed pervasive gender inequality in the division of household labor and childcare when both partners were employed full-time [4–6], more recent studies have reported that during the pandemic the burden of household labor and childcare has fallen even more disproportionally on women [7–9]. More specific to women’s management of work–life balance during the pandemic, The Institute for Women’s Policy Research reported that women, and particularly women of color, have experienced even greater struggles with managing paid work, caregiving responsibilities, and other types of Merits 2023, 3, 167–185. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits3010011 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/merits