Motherhood and guilt in a pandemic: Negotiating the “new” normal with a feminist identity

Abstract

Mothers who work and identify as feminists have been thrust into a new "COVID-19 normal," finding themselves taking on roles that are "at odds" with their feminist identity (i.e., the bulk of more "traditional" stay-at-home parenting, homeschooling, and domestic chores), while simultaneously navigating the expectations of neoliberal careerism embedded within female emancipation discourses that have been so hard-won. In this piece, we draw on critical femininities to highlight how these identities are embedded in several push-pull discourses that simultaneously resonate and discord, and show that these understandings are difficult to detangle from neoliberal social constructions and expectations that have women selfpolicing even their inner psyche lest we become "bad" feminists. Furthermore, we acknowledge how our sensemaking in this paper and our experiences are rooted in (and limited by) the socioeconomic privileges of being western white middle-class cis-gender women in predominantly non-precarious positions-indeed, mothers who work are not a homogenous group and the many different voices reflect different levels of job security.

Postpartum women’s psychological experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: a modified recurrent cross-sectional thematic analysis

“…As a result, causing women who are most in need of using breastfeeding support services to 'fall through the cracks'. Overall, although women were able to take some positives from their experiences of parenthood during the pandemic, accounts were overwhelmingly negative in their focus on inaccessibility to informal and formal sources of support, suggesting attempts to 'make the best of a bad situation' [35]. Given these findings, future research should also seek to explore factors which may contribute toward adopting this more resilient mindset during the pandemic, among new mothers.…”

Impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the productivity of academics who mother

“…Neoliberalism has benefited from the feminist movement because it falls in line with its objectives of aiming to “free” women from the home and integrate them into the economy as workers and consumers (Whiley et al., 2020). Several neoliberal ideas and practices have exerted a significant impact on female academics, in general, and academics who mother in academia, in particular.…”

“…Neoliberalism has benefited from the feminist movement because it falls in line with its objectives of aiming to "free" women from the home and integrate them into the economy as workers and consumers (Whiley et al, 2020).…”

Mothering in a Pandemic: Navigating Care Work, Intensive Motherhood, and COVID-19

“…The increased employment worries spiral out to significant relationships as well, as Waddell and colleagues showed: Using surveys both before and during COVID-19, the researchers found that when women were saddled with more of the unpaid domestic labor, they were "more likely to experience increased relationship problems and dissatisfaction" [62, p. 1778]. When women attempt to reconcile the competing discourses of what constitutes a "good" mother and a "good" worker, they face increased pressure and guilt at not fulfilling either [63].…”