Overcoming Work/Family Challenges Among Female Health Workers in Selected Public Healthcare Institutions in Ekiti State

In the early years, the place of women in the family was restricted to home keeping, child rearing, child caring, and carrying out various home responsibilities. That period perpetually constrained womenfolk from neither actively participating in the labour force nor working outside the home. In the event of time, sensitization and gender equality gave room for womenfolk to be vibrant partakers in the workforce. Many women then work outside the home while combining work roles and familial roles. Despite this development, women are still expected to traditionally and culturally perform their familial roles while combining them with their work roles. These expectations from men counterparts have brought various challenges for women to deal with. Surprisingly, in the face of these challenges, womenfolk had adopted different ways and strategies to cope with them. It was on this note the study examines the strategies employed in overcoming work and family roles challenges among married female health workers in some selected public healthcare institutions. 193 questionnaires were successfully retrieved and analyzed from the respondents through simple random sampling. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were employed in the study. It was discovered that married female workers in public health institutions were faced with work and family challenges such as inadequate equipment, insufficient time, stress, fatigue, finance, child-rearing, and the absence of domestic help. It was, however, discovered that by overcoming the challenges, the respondents have resulted in creating good plans, keeping children busy, employing the use of home appliances and equipment among others