Women are no strangers to the challenges of a work-life balance.
Gender norms contribute to greater expectations of women’s workloads in the home, with the UK International Labour Organisation estimating they are responsible for three-quarters of unpaid care work.
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown exacerbated pressures, and three women who work outside of the home share their experiences, what challenged them the most, and what they have learned.
Lisa Boushy Mack
Lisa Boushy Mack is a real estate advisor with Engel & Völkers, Cayman Islands, and part-time journalist with Wordscape Media. She has two children, Sebastian, 7, and Vivienne, 5.
Pre-COVID, Lisa benefitted from a newly hired helper, and a ‘quiet, serene’ rooftop home office. Once the pandemic hit this changed, with no helper and the home office becoming both her and her husband’s, as well as the kids’ classroom, with a rotating schedule implemented.
“Between that and the kitchen table and office nook downstairs, our house became quite the busy scene with all our various gadgets, papers, and binders strewn everywhere,” says Lisa.
While Lisa benefitted from flexible brokers, weekly Zoom calls and a quick-to-adapt real estate industry, she also faced challenges in a profession which is usually face-to-face.
“I was very grateful to land three listings during lockdown, however, what proved challenging was marketing the properties in the best light,” explains Lisa, who was unable to enter properties for staging, photographs, video or VR tours, or to show to prospective buyers. “Zoom calls and virtual tours suddenly took precedence.”
These challenges diminished when faced with homeschooling young children who missed their teachers, classmates and school routine.
“It started to become mentally, emotionally and physically draining for the whole family,” she says. “I kept thinking of their future selves. How would they remember this unprecedented time in history?”
Despite difficulties, Lisa feels they became closer as a family and learned to appreciate things previously taken for granted, including modern technology and teachers.
“I can’t speak for all families, but at least for myself and many other working mothers I know, it was extremely hard to juggle all of the work-life demands suddenly imposed on us during lockdown, especially for us mothers with young children,” Lisa says. “My husband helped out tremendously…but the onus was still on me for many of the little things that keep the family ticking along.
“One thing I realised is that we are all so resilient. The human spirit can rise and adapt when called for with the right mindset and a bit of grit.”
Christina Bodden
As partner with the Maples Group, global board member of 100 Women in Finance, co-founder of GirlForce 100 and mother to George, 23, and Nathan, 13, Christina Bodden juggles a lot.
The multitasker is wary of the phrase ‘work-life balance’, saying it insinuates that focus must be on one at a time.
“I focus more on balance within myself, a flow,” she says. “Trying to attain perfection between work and home life, especially as a young lawyer, just meant I was creating expectations of myself I could never meet.”
Once she accepted this flow, and became proud of being a working mother, instead of feeling guilty, a new world opened up to her.
“I have always found that to try and set very rigid boundaries between the two just ultimately made me feel over-extended and exhausted,” says Christina. “My ultimate goal is to bring the best version of myself to my job, my community work, my kids, how I run my home and my life.”
Christina has always benefitted from a great support system, prioritising what was most important for her to handle and delegating other tasks.
“For me, the most important thing was my kids, the rest I had help with,” she says. “That is the only way I could achieve partnership at my firm, create a framework for the kind of community work I wanted to do…and take care of myself.”
Lockdown did not lessen Christina’s responsibilities.
Nathan adapted quickly to online learning, and Christina had a crash course in technology, conducting 100 Women in Finance Zoom events from her eldest son’s room turned home office.
Lockdown also coincided with Maples Group registering thousands of private funds under new legislation, creating a bespoke IT platform to house registration materials, and facilitating the bulk upload of data to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
The experience ultimately brought Christina’s family closer. “We made time to talk, watch old movies, listen to music, make future plans, change plans we made before, pray for those who needed it,” she says.
Alyssa Christian
with their children Jonny and Emma.
As marketing manager for FLOW/C&W as well as mother, to Jonny, 7, and Emma, 3, Alyssa Christian relies on her calendar and schedules to make it all work. Just like Christina, she believes a support system is incredibly important.
“Of course, I have help and I couldn’t do it alone. It truly takes a village,” says Alyssa of her pre-COVID life. “My husband is so helpful, and I do have an amazing nanny who is such a huge part of our family. I think society, and we as mums, have unrealistic expectations of who we should be and what we should be doing.
“We are all different and have different lifestyles and personalities. We just have to do what is best for ourselves and our families.”
Lockdown introduced new challenges to the mix.
“Homeschooling, working full-time and entertaining a 3-year-old was not easy; on top of all of the other stress that came along with it,” says Alyssa.
She also found out she was pregnant with her third child two weeks into lockdown and dealt with accompanying physical symptoms.
While Alyssa believes women can do it all, the balance and support network she says is necessary was affected by lockdown.
“What made it most stressful was not having the balance of getting a time out to have time to myself, or with friends, to regroup and then come home and tackle everything all over again,” she says.
Through it all Alyssa has learned to accept change.
“Relinquishing control is not my strong point – but 2020 has taught me that I cannot plan everything, and I have had to adapt to the unexpected,” she says.
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