News Releases

Project investigating T&T’s Work/Life Balance and Ageing to be launched

For Release Upon Receipt - March 29, 2016

St. Augustine


The Institute for Gender and Development Studies (IGDS) and the Social Work Unit at The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine Campus have embarked on a three-year project on Work, Life Balance and Ageing in Trinidad & Tobago 2015-2018. The project will examine the contemporary challenges of working women and men aged 40-65 in balancing their work and family life commitments locally and the way in which this balance is offset or aggravated by the longer life expectancy of the population. It will be launched at a press conference on Thursday March 31 at the SALISES Conference Room at the St. Augustine Campus from 11am.

According to the lead research team, comprising Professor Patricia Mohammed, Ms. Cheryl-Ann Boodram and Ms. Deborah McFee, the study focuses on the following three inter-related areas: What are the specific challenges that contemporary working populations face in meeting work and family life commitments? Is the work of the elderly in the home a critical resource in facilitating work/life balance for the working population? Is care of the elderly a strain to the attainment of work/life balance for the working population? They hope that the project will produce findings and recommendations that are critically needed in this under-researched area in our society.

The project has received funding from The UWI Trinidad and Tobago Research Development and Impact (UWI-TT RDI) Fund. The UWI-TT RDI Fund brings cross-faculty research teams together to use their knowledge to address specific problems linked to national and regional development. This specific project will be implemented along with International Labour Organization Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean (ILO/DWT), the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Retired Persons (TTARP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Sub-Regional Headquarters (UN-ECLAC), the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) and Women Working for Social Progress (WWSP).

For further details on the project, contact Patricia A. Hackett at the IGDS at 662-2002 exts. 82321, 83577 or via email Patricia.Hackett@sta.uwi.edu.

 

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About The UWI

Since its inception in 1948, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged, regional University with well over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest, most longstanding higher education provider in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with four campuses in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Open Campus. The UWI has faculty and students from more than 40 countries and collaborative links with 160 universities globally; it offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology and Social Sciences. UWI’s seven priority focal areas are linked closely to the priorities identified by CARICOM and take into account such over-arching areas of concern to the region as environmental issues, health and wellness, gender equity and the critical importance of innovation. Website: www.uwi.edu

 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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