Home is where it happens: a visual essay on pandemic parenting for employed mothers

Abstract

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many U.S. schools, childcare centres, and non-essential workplaces closed or moved to a virtual, remote format. As a result, many families were forced to combine childcare, schooling, and paid work responsibilities within the home. This shift had unequal consequences, with employed mothers often bearing the brunt of additional childcare and household labour. In this visual essay, we draw from in-depth interviews with mothers of young children (N = 65), conducted in the early stages of the pandemic (April-May 2020) to produce three illustrations. As an analytic tool and form of data representation, these illustrations portray the experiences of employed mothers, situate these experiences within the broader institutional contexts of the pandemic, and use visual elements designed to leave layers of meaning up to audience interpretation.