Increasing housework induces fatigue on Turkish women during pandemic: UN analyst

ANKARA

The coronavirus pandemic is inducing fatigue and unrest among Turkish women due to the increasing workload at their houses, a gender analyst from UNDP Turkey has said while determining the problems women face in establishing a work-life balance.

“The good point is that men’s support to women at houses has also increased,” Aslı Çoban said during a conference of a parliament commission.

However, the rate of sharing responsibilities at home should be more, according to the expert. “If women do not get any support from their family members, they face psychological breakdown which also lessens happiness of other family members,” she told lawmakers.

“This issue should be on our agenda,” she added.

Çoban also pointed out a survey two professors, Emel Memiş and İpek İlkkaracan, conducted amid the pandemic.

“The support of men in household chores has increased,” Çoban noted. “The survey showed that if men feel more comfortable in their workplaces, then their support to the women at home will be higher.”

Outbreaks are surely “unfortunate times,” however, “even under such conditions, people can turn things from negative to positive,” she stated.

A survey in July also revealed that people started getting tired by the pandemic, leaving the anxiety they were feeling in the first year of the pandemic behind.

Some 66 percent of women feel worn out, while this percentage is some 47 in men.

According to the survey, every seven out of 10 women believe that the workload of women at home has increased amid the pandemic. The rate of women being affected by the pandemic was more than men.