Work-Family Conflicts of Female Academics in The UK and Nigeria

This thesis investigated work–family conflict (WFC) among female academics in the UK and Nigeria, critically drawing on Sylvia Walby’s patriarchy theory that identifies six institutional structures (paid work, household production, culture, sexuality, violence, and the state) through which patriarchy operates. Walby later developed gender regimes theory to address the different configurations of gendered power across the public and private spheres. This research is further enriched by intersectional feminism and African feminist critiques. These theoretical perspectives underscore how gender intersects with culture, ethnic and class, particularly within African socio-institutional realities. Using a comparative mixed-methods case study design, this research collected data through semi-structured online surveys distributed to eighty female academics across four case universities in Nigeria and the UK, spanning various disciplines and career stages. The findings shows that WFC is exacerbated by: (1) neoliberal marketisation of higher education which increases workloads and reduces work–life balance in female academics, especially in the UK; (2) established patriarchal norms and cultural expectations assigning unpaid domestic and caregiving responsibilities to women, particularly in the Nigerian context; and (3) lack of implementation of family-friendly institutional policies, with participants in the UK often encountering inconsistent access, and those in Nigeria facing systemic absence of support. These structural and cultural factors systematically reduce job satisfaction, productivity, and organisational commitment among female academics in both countries. In the UK, despite the availability of formal policy frameworks, career progression among female academics is delayed by unstable policy enforcement and longtime gender role biases. In Nigeria, societal expectation and pressure to prioritise family over career, compounded by financial insecurity and weak institutional backing, leads to job dissatisfaction. Theoretically, the study contributes to how public patriarchy and private patriarchy intersect to produce specific WFC patterns in the two countries. Intersectional and African feminist lenses further enhance these insights, underscoring how structural forms of oppression are experienced differently across geopolitical and cultural context, calling for the necessity of context-specific policy interventions. This thesis therefore calls for: (a) the development of culturally rich institutional policies in Nigeria to support female academics; and (b) more rigorous enforcement and equitable implementation of family-friendly policies in the UK. These recommendations are essential interventions informed by theoretical models of patriarchy, gender regimes, and intersectionality.