ATT ARBETA PÅ EN KVINNOJOUR UNDERCORONAPANDEMIN -En kvalitativ studie om jourkvinnors upplevelser av arbetet med våldsutsatta kvinnor

Sammanfattning: The Covid-19 pandemic has put Sweden in a new and challenging situation. Several of thewomen's shelters in Sweden have reported an alarming pressure as a result of increased casesof women and children in vulnerable situations. Based on a qualitative research strategy, thisstudy examines how women's shelter workers experience and handles the practical andemotional work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To examine this study's purpose and researchquestions, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with women’s shelter workers fromvarious women's shelters in Sweden. During each interview, the study subjects were given theopportunity to share their own experiences regarding the work situation due to the Covid-19pandemic. The gathered empirical material was analyzed using Arlie Hochschild's theoryregarding emotional work. The results of the study show that the majority of the study subjectsexperience changes in the number of abused women in need of help and support and that thepractical work has been limited and challenged. Furthermore, the study subjects experiencetheir jobs as even more emotionally demanding during the Covid-19 pandemic, but this had noeffect on the way of dealing with the emotional work. Several different coping strategies couldbe identified in the way of handling the emotional work, including recovery, previousprofessional experience, surface or deep emotional acting and the support from colleagues.With the help of different approaches, the study subjects distinguish themselves from theirprofessional role in order to not identify themselves too strongly with the emotional work. Theresults of the study proved that different coping strategies are of importance to be able to handleand complete emotional work.