The aim of this empirical study is to understand the impact of involuntary false self-employment on female educators’ job satisfaction and well-being in the public educational sector in Cyprus and unravel the barriers that mothers with school-age children still face.
Through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, data were collected from 43 respondents. Drawing on the work and family conflict theory, this study reports that female educators still resort to bogus self-employment as the only means to support their families.
Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis reveal that involuntary bogus self-employment has negatively impacted these women’s health, family life, and career prospects. 65% of the participants stated that they suffered from mental health issues and 59% reported their dissatisfaction with their life overall.
Implications of the findings are discussed to unveil the gendered challenges that women with caregiving responsibilities still face in the workplace due to insufficient childcare and caregiving support.