The incidence of Covid-19 in the adoption of work-life balance measures: The case of the University of Deusto

The Covid pandemic has forced governments to impose confinement and lock down measures, and to favour teleworking whenever possible. Many people have found themselves confined and strained to reconcile teleworking with family care and housework. Women seem to have suffered the impact of this situation to a greater extent. There are those who affirm to have lost their "own room" and redefined their spaces and times in order to be able to reconcile different productive and reproductive activities. In this context, during the 2019-2020 academic year, the University of Deusto established a series of conciliation measures that go beyond what is legally provided for Administrative and Services personnel. This paper combines a literature review of the numerous existing studies on the impact that this pandemic has caused in female academic careers with the analysis of the impact that the pandemic has brought to academic institutions. While the first part of the analysis is based on a literature review, the second is the result of the different measures implemented at the University of Deusto, particularly work life balance measures. The institution has carried out an analysis of who benefited from the new measures in order to assess their impact. Likewise, we will incorporate to the analysis the questionnaire distributed among the University staff, in which, among others, it assesses the work life balance measures in place at the institution. This questionnaire also emphasises the perception of the exercise of reconciling personal, family and professional life by those who occupy leadership positions, in order to interpret whether the institution favours, with the example of its leaders, the implementation of work life balance measures and policies.