INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 10(8)(2021) 149-157 * Corresponding author. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4156-0971 © 2021by the authors. Hosting by SSBFNET. Peer review under responsibility of Center for Strategic Studies in Business and Finance. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v10i8.1526 Citation: Adeoluwa Adewumi, S., & Duma, P. T. (2021). Female academics’ views on work-life conflict in a Covid-19 global pandemic in Nigeria. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478), 10(8). Female academics’ views on work-life conflict in a Covid-19 global pandemic in Nigeria Samson Adeoluwa Adewumi (a)* Princess Thulile Duma (b) (a,b) Ph.D.Mangosuthu University of Technology, Human Resource Management Disciplin, Umlazi, South Africa A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 02 December 2021 Received in rev. form 21 Dec. 2021 Accepted 22 December 2021 Keywords: Work, Covid-19, academic, women, university, education JEL Classification: H75, J71, J82 A B S T R A C T Remarking on the importance of managing the existential conflict between work and family responsibilities, emphasis on female academics in a COVID-19 era in Nigeria has received diminutive research attention. The study seeks to address this research gap by interrogating women's views of work-life conflict narrative in a COVID-19 era. The exploratory research design was employed to expand the limit of the research gap and a total of 19 female academics were y recruited for interviews. The NVivo (v.12) qualitative software was employed to identify themes from the data and content analysis used to make sense of the various themes. The paper shows evidence of cultural bias in the recruitment and placement of female academics with social constraints hindering female academic capacity development. The long hours of teaching and consultation depict an indicator of work-life conflict with consequences on family support and emotional care for family and dependents. The need to acquire higher education qualifications on the part of females is also established as a pointer for the provocation of work-life conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. The significance of lockdown constitutes major constraints for parenting mothers in the areas of combining home front responsibilities with work activities such as teaching, supervision, and the requirement of building a competitive career and research portfolio. The study concludes for a more robust measure in ensuring practical and realistic work-life conflict management strategies are introduced by managers of the University in order to aid the conflict between work and family responsibilities for female academics. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee SSBFNET, Istanbul, Turkey. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Introduction The global purpose of work is the need for the promotion of a sustainable and healthy work pattern for all working class. However, the continuous rise of work-life conflict has conveyed a negative outlook on the sustainability of work engendering a spontaneous increase in the amount of conflict between the management of work and family responsibilities (Adisa, Adekoya & Okoya, 2021). The occurrence of conflict between work and family responsibilities often leads to an undesirable repercussion for the individual including heightened risk in health and well-being, a declining participation towards family care and attachment and a decrease in life’s commitment and relationships among other concerns (Agha, Azmi & Irfa, 2017). The continuous changes in the workplace and demography of employees’ have necessitate the study of the nexus of work and family conflict more important now than in the past. There has been an increase in the collection of studies in the areas of work-life conflict in the last two decades that has transmuted into the development of models, theories and practical organizational work-life conflict management initiatives (Boncori, 2020; Apodiari & Lasisi, 2016). Notwithstanding the increasing call for organisations, families and the individual employee to come to terms with the importance of ensuring a balance between the demands of work and family responsibilities, many women are still gripped with appropriating Research in Business & Social Science IJRBS VOL 10 NO 8 ISSN: 2147-4478 Available online at www.ssbfnet.com Journal homepage: https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs