Creating Resilience for Minority Female Workers and the Role of Flexibility in Work Environments: A Mixed Method Study

Principal Investigator:
Aleisha Lewis

Faculty Advisor:
Dawn Adams-Harmon

Abstract:
Prior to the Covid 19 global pandemic, women and female minorities in the US were represented at lower organizational levels, however, exhibited dwindling numbers at higher organizational levels (Huang et al., 2019). The burden of home care responsibilities for women are double as compared to men and creates additional stresses to maintaining work-life balance (Medina & Lere, 2020). Gender role disparities continued to burden women during the pandemic and women were forced to take on additional home responsibilities in conjunction with remotely working (Bozkurt, et al., 2020) and it was found that it was more difficult for black and hispanic women to manage remote work due to lack of support and cultural aspects (Beuregard et al., 2020).
This research was conducted with undergraduate students in an urban University in Union, New Jersey, to ascertain post-pandemic sentiments of what future female minorities desire for flexible work options. A mixed method study surveys and questionnaires were given to undergraduate online and on-campus students.
The results indicate that female students tend to regard flexible work arrangements such as hybrid work, more importantly than others.