“When the baby sleeps, I work” : neoliberal motherhood in Latin America during the Covid-19 lockdown
Paludi, M. I., Krysa, I., & Kivijärvi, M. (2023). “When the baby sleeps, I work” : neoliberal motherhood in Latin America during the Covid-19 lockdown. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Early online. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-04-2022-0081
Published in
Equality, Diversity and InclusionDate
2023Discipline
Organisational Ethics, Leadership and HRMKestävä liiketoiminta ja talous (painoala)JohtaminenOrganisational Ethics, Leadership and HRMSustainable Business and Economy (focus area)Management and LeadershipCopyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
Purpose – This paper explores working mothers’ coping strategies concerning paid and unpaid work in Chile and Argentina during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper aimed to understand the influence of cultural norms on motherhood and neoliberal workplace practices on mothers’ sensemaking processes and coping strategies. This study focuses on mothers living in Chile and Argentina where governments established mandatory lockdowns between March and September 2020. Drawing on the notion of neoliberal motherhood, women’s demands were analyzed when paid work and mothering duties collide in time and space.
Design/methodology/approach – Open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 women in Chile and Argentina. All interviewees had at least 1 child below the age of 6 and were working from home during the lockdown.
Findings – Neoliberal workplace demands, and disadvantageous government policies greatly heightened the dual burdens of working mothers. Women were expected to fulfill the discourses of the neoliberal worker and the good mother, while also adopting additional strategies in the wake of the lockdown. The data highlights mothers’ strategies to cope with care and work duties by adjusting to new routines involving their partners, relatives and the wider community.
Research limitations/implications – The generalizability of the results is limited by the small sample of 17 interviewees, all from middle to middle-upper class. The changing scenario due to Covid-19 makes the collected data not sufficient to grasp the impact of the pandemic, as during the interviews (December 2020 and January 2021) the process was still ongoing.
Practical implications – Organizations should assess their role in the management of paid and unpaid work for both genders, as the neoliberal discourse views the worker as masculine, full-time, always available and productive, ignoring women’s additional care duties outside of the workplace.
Originality/value – The Covid-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to reflect on care work and gender, collective versus individual responses to care and work demands and the idea of organizing.
...
Publisher
EmeraldISSN Search the Publication Forum
2040-7149Keywords
Publication in research information system
https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/183211250
Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Kauppakorkeakoulu [1343]
License
Related items
Showing items with similar title or keywords.
-
Conforming to and resisting imposed identities : An autoethnography on academic motherhood
Krysa, Isabella; Kivijärvi, Marke (Emerald, 2022)Purpose This research attempts to make sense of the experiences of two academic women who become mothers. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an autoethnography. Applying the autoethnographic method allows ... -
Addressing the Pandemic in the Philippines Necessitates a New Economic Paradigm
Juego, Bonn (Developing Economics Org., 2020) -
Erityinen ystävyys : miehen ja naisen välinen rakkaus uuden ajan alun Suomessa (n. 1650-1700)
Kietäväinen-Sirén, Hanna (University of Jyväskylä, 2015) -
Saada kaikki ja olla onnellinen : äitiyrittäjyys tuottavuuden ja affektien aikakaudella
Ikonen, Hanna-Mari (Westermarck-seura, 2021)Artikkelissa tutkin uusliberaalin postfeminismin kehyksen läpi työntekijyyden ja äitiyden ristiriitaisuuksia ja ratkaisuyrityksiä. Empiirisenä kohteena on äitiyrittäjyysilmiö. Siinä on kyse yrittäjyydestä, joka on rinnakkaista ... -
Gender inequalities, research funding and organisational practices : Academic mothers in Finnish universities
Vehviläinen, Marja; Ikonen, Hanna-Mari; Korvajärvi, Päivi (Routledge, 2024)This chapter examines how gender equality in academic work and careers is (not) supported at the interplay of funding agency and university practices in the context of academic capitalism in Finland. By analysing researchers’ ...