Intensive mothering in the time of coronavirus

Times of disaster disproportionately impact women, children, and vulnerable populations. Thus, concern about women's welfare became paramount as the intensity of the COVID‐19 global pandemic increased. Due to these concerns and the need to examine them from a scientific perspective, we announced a call for empirical and theoretical investigations into how women around the world were experiencing this time of disaster. We were especially interested in investigations that provided information that afforded intersectionality analyses; that is, those that recognized overlapping socially‐constructed systems of oppression such as patriarchy, white supremacy, and classism and how they impact the structures, institutions, agencies, and policies that change women's lives. We received an overwhelming response to our call from scholars around the world whose empirical and theoretical works focused on women's lives during the height of the global COVID‐19 pandemic, resulting in a two‐installment Special Issue on how the COVID‐19 pandemic magnified existing gender inequities. This installment aims to understand how the global pandemic has impacted women's work, children, and families around the world. Throughout both installments, scholars emphasize how empirical findings can and should drive social policies that ameliorate inequities and support women and their families.

Section: School Changes Impact Mothersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: School Changes Impact Mothersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding women's work, children and families during the COVID‐19 global pandemic: Using science to support women around the globe

Dinella

Fulcher²,

Weisgram

2023

“…As the introduction to this issue notes, the pandemic has, in many respects, reinscribed traditional, patriarchal divides of household labor (Dinella & Fulcher, 2023). In the United States, women across racial and economic lines, were far more likely to carry the burden of caring for children, even when both parents worked full‐time from home, reflecting powerful assumptions about the importance of intensive mothering (Calarco et al., 2021; Etowa & Hyman, 2021; Lutz, Lee & Bokayev, 2023). While migration upends some gender norms, Latina immigrant women, like women across cultural and ethnic differences, often operate in relational contexts where adherence to dominant beliefs about women's roles are upheld (Boehm, 2012; Dreby & Schmalzbauer, 2013).…”

Section: Conceptualizing Latina Immigrant Mothers’ Agency In Times Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“Me Cuesta Mucho”: Latina immigrant mothers navigating remote learning and caregiving during COVID‐19

Bruhn

2022

Before the pandemic, immigrant mothers from Latin America in the United States typically shouldered the weight of caregiving for children, maintained jobs, and managed transnational care responsibilities. But as COVID‐19 erupted across the globe, the combination of gendered roles and a collapsing economy ruptured the already fragile arrangement of childcare and paid labor for Latina immigrant mothers. In this article, I examine how school closures intersected with Latina women's identities and social positions as immigrant mothers who suddenly confronted job loss, illness, and increased familial responsibilities. I show how Latina immigrant women renegotiated relationships to schooling, becoming teachers overnight in an unfamiliar system. Mothers shifted educational aspirations for their children to prioritize safety, as they managed increased stress and conflict while schools remained remote. I demonstrate how the breakdowns in care infrastructure forced mothers to rethink the elusive balance between paid labor and childcare, especially for those who were undocumented. Throughout, I explore how immigrant women's intersecting identities left them vulnerable to structural racism and exclusionary immigration policies. Despite the multiple layers of struggle, women continued to support their children's education and socio‐emotional well‐being, even in the face of multiple levels of gendered, racialized inequalities.

“…One practical effect of the closures of schools and childcare centers was that the work of educating and caring for children shifted largely to parents (Bruhn, 2023; Coleman‐King et al., 2023; Lutz et al., in press). Additionally, the shuttering of childcare‐related jobs had a substantial economic impact on a sector that is female‐dominated: over 90% of workers in education and childcare in the United States are women (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).…”

Section: Timeline Of Covid‐19 Policies In the United Statesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women, work, and families during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Examining the effects of COVID policies and looking to the future

Hayes

Lee

2022

The far‐reaching, negative effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic have impacted healthcare, economic, public safety, and social systems globally. The public safety measures put in place in the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic, including sheltering in places orders and shutdowns of schools and places of work, negatively impacted the employment status and increased time spent in domestic work and childcare for women. In this paper, we review and analyze the impacts, both direct and indirect, of COVID‐related policies on the lives of women. Specifically, we outline how the progression of policies aimed at addressing both public safety and economic recovery during the COVID‐19 pandemic affected women's health, paid and unpaid work, and wellbeing. We will focus on the impacts of policies implemented in the United States in comparison to policies that were implemented globally to address similar issues during the first two years of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for policies that could prevent similar disparate impacts on women in future crises.