The effect of working from home on the work-life balance of female employees based on the CVID-19 epidemic example: A study on the province of Trabzon

The addition of the role of employee to the roles that women have with their participation in the labor market reveals the need to establish a balance in terms of fulfilling their responsibilities in business and family life. The increasing participation of women in working life makes the problem of establishing a work-life balance important. Today, with the effect of increasing technological developments, new forms of employment called flexible working in the labor market are increasing. Working from home, one of these new forms of work, comes to the fore, especially for women who try to maintain their family and business life together. Therefore, there are debates over whether the work-from-home model facilitates women's work-life balance as expected or, on the contrary, makes it more difficult. Working from home has become compulsory work within the framework of the measures taken during the COVID-19 epidemic period. In this context, most of the employees had to carry out their work from home. This period, in which many women employees fulfill their domestic responsibilities as well as their work life from home, brought with it the problem of how working from home affects women's work-life balance. In this direction, the aim of the study is to reveal how working from home affects the work-life balance of women, based on the experience of the epidemic, in the example of Trabzon province. In the research, the flexibility of time and space offered by working from home and the relationship between mother and housewife, which are among the basic roles of women, with work-life balance were examined. The universe of the research is women working from home in different occupational groups in Trabzon. In the study, in which the qualitative research method was adopted, semi-structured interview technique was used and 28 women, 7 academics, 7 bankers, 7 call center employees and 7 teachers, were interviewed. Finally, it was concluded that working from home negatively affects the work-life balance of women. It has also been observed that women's traditional roles in working from home increase the extent of their negative impact.