Mothering During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic on March 11th, 2020, and ever since, our world has been turned upside down: replacing “ordinary life” with chaos, uncertainty, and fear. The widespread lockdown measures and closures of schools and daycares mid-March created a crisis of care, where formal and informal care arrangements have been upended, which has left many families on their own to resolve this issue. Since historically, women have shouldered the heaviest weight of the child care burden, and earn on average less than their male counterparts, it has become women and their work that have seen dramatic impacts, including being the ones to step back from their careers to assume the full-time responsibilities during the pandemic. Given the barriers they already face under normal circumstances, the question becomes how have mothers been impacted by the added strain involved with child care, homeschooling and navigating paid work following the pandemic? How will this crisis shed light on the inequalities that persist, namely the cultural expectations for mothers, and gendered norms embedded in carework?

Department: Honours Sociology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Joanne Minaker