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Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many governments introduced lockdown measures in which people were expected to work and study from their homes. Schools, daycares, and extracurricular programs were temporarily closed. All students from primary to the post-graduate level were transferred to online learning. This shift added a tremendous burden and additional workload for parents who were supposed to combine their own work and supervision of the online studies of their children from home. Recent research confirmed that women took more responsibilities for household chores and care of children during the pandemic. We conducted a study on female doctoral students because women in this demographic tend to have families by that age, pursue their graduate studies, and are often involved in full-time and part-time jobs to contribute to their family income. We suggest that the gender equality sustainable development goal can be achieved through doctoral education, opportunities for combining academic careers with family responsibilities to women; and the support of women in the knowledge-based economy. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore female Ph.D. students' lived experiences under the pressure of the pandemic and investigate the main strategies of coping with the multiple duties they had. This case study applies a qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological approach. The data source is the in-depth semi-structured interviews with six female Ph.D. students who comprised a homogenous and purposeful sample as they shared the same experience.

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