Whenever we think we’ve achieved certain advances as women, a disruption to our status quo (like the pandemic) truly clarifies the social injustice we continue to face.
In this post, I’m focusing specifically on our work as female academics (mostly in heterosexual relationships).
Now… of course fathers have been stepping up. They’re doing a lot more than their predecessors ever did. But mothers are being given a bigger load too. Many feel the pressure to parent like their mothers never did: lots of research to ‘do it right’, pressure to do ‘positive parenting’, no screen time, breastfeeding, baby-led weaning… all while juggling their other responsibilities.
What makes it worse is that the mental load mostly falls on the mother: do the kids have beach day at school? What should go into the snack box? When does school registration close? When should I call their gym teacher? How do I discipline them without traumatizing them? How do I maintain a healthy sibling relationship? How do I get them to read more?
For academic moms, this is even worse. The pandemic showed a significant imbalance… many academic fathers talked of the pleasure in having a quiet office to write their papers in. Mothers? Many powered through helping their kids with online classes, teaching at home, and still making time for all the above.
The numbers speak for themselves. Most are now talking of the disparity between articles published, for instance, getting grants, and basically competing for limited resources in academic – which could affect their promotion later on.
This maternal wall might not impact all mothers in similar ways of course! I do not want to generalize here… but this image below gives us a blueprint to work with… in situations of inequity, the wall itself needs to be destroyed. And we need to get started before the next drastic change hits.
Reine's Organized Chaos 