BALANCING EFFORTS FOR STABILITY: FEMALE BROADCASTERS AND THEIR FAMILIES’ RESOURCE UTILISATION, CHALLENGES AND EMERGENT LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA
Keywords:
Female broadcasters, families, learning, resources, workdayAbstract
Female broadcasters especially those who are married experience significant work-life balance issues as they contend with the unpredictable demanding nature of their work which affects their families as well. This qualitative study identifies the resources that female broadcasters and their families leverage to achieve balance from the women’ workday in Southwestern Nigeria, it examines the benefits and challenges participants associate with these resources and explores the link between participants’ experiences, their meaning-making, and learning from engaging with resources for balance. The study adopted the narrative research design that uses the phenomenological approach. It sampled 18 participants (six female broadcasters, and their respective husband and child making six husbands and six children) purposively selected from Oyo and Ogun States. Three semi-structured interview guides were used to gather data. Data were analysed using phenomenological thematic analysis. Findings revealed two broad categories of resources- human (kin and non-kin relationships) and non-human (educational and entertaining, technological, nutritional, financial and workplace-related) resources. Despite their usefulness in enhancing family stability, these resources presented challenges including truncated family support and trust concerns; burdensome sibling care; vulnerability, neighbour distrust and intimidation; concerns with domestic helps; parental regrets: ruined childhood; parental surveillance and blurred work–family boundaries. This study established links between participants’ experiences that resulted in adaptive learning which fosters coping and balance. The study concludes that resource usage and its associated challenges create experiential learning opportunities which are helpful in enhancing family stability and adaptation among female broadcasters and their families.
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