All in the House: Mothers as Digital and Spatial Managers During COVID-19 Lockdowns

• In Event: 40266 - Technology and Organization of Family Life

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 led to the shuttering of in-person schooling and jobs, rapidly increasing remote learning and work via technologies such as Zoom and Google Suites. While the rise of virtual work initially brought hope for reducing gendered work inequalities, the reality of remote work and mothering during the pandemic proved to only further entrench these unequal patterns. How did managing space within the home impact mothers' mental load? How did technology facilitate these interactions alongside remote work and schooling? Drawing from 53 in-depth interviews with mothers during the initial pandemic lockdowns, we start to fill this gap and answer our questions by examining how during the early months of the pandemic mothers managed the mental load of juggling the rapid transition into virtual modalities all within the home space.

Authors

• Shania Kuo, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

• Rongchen Wang, Hamilton College

• Mahala Dyer Stewart, Hamilton College