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The ethics of care and academic motherhood amid COVID‐19
Author(s) -
Miller Karyn E.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/gwao.12547
Subject(s) - pandemic , legislature , covid-19 , value (mathematics) , action (physics) , narrative , work (physics) , sociology , public relations , political science , law , medicine , mechanical engineering , linguistics , philosophy , physics , disease , pathology , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , engineering
The COVID‐19 pandemic has upended the lives of working parents as they strive to meet the conflicting demands of childcare and professional obligations. While growing evidence suggests the extraordinary challenges to time and work brought by the pandemic, this article explores the pandemic as an opportunity for stillness and reflection, a personal and professional recalibration. Through a personal narrative describing my experiences as an academic and mother before and during the pandemic, framed within the ethics of care, this article brings light to the untenable reality of working mothers pre‐pandemic, explores the ways in which the pandemic has positively facilitated caring relationships at home as well as the reallocation of time and household responsibilities, and argues for policy and legislative action at the institutional and societal levels that support and value the care work of women and men alike.