I’m doing everything wrong. Juggling working mothers in pandemics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9584-2024v32n188610Keywords:
Gender; Motherhood; Work-Life Balance; Care Work; Covid-19Abstract
This article aims to analyse the experiences of working mothers in organising the care of their children during the weeks of mandatory confinement caused by the covid-19 pandemic between March and May 2020. This qualitative research was conducted in Zaragoza, Spain, with semi structured interviews with 16 working Spanish and foreign mothers raising children under 12 in partnership or as a single parent. The results show that the pandemic and confinement caused household imbalances in terms of childcare, mainly due to the closure of childcare services, the reconfiguration of paid work, and the absence of support networks. This situation forced them to put in place new domestic arrangements that meant an overload of work for mothers.
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