Academic mothers and the practice of embodied care

Navigating and Resisting Uncaring Structures in the Neoliberal Academy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6058992
AutoresLara Pecis (0000-0002-2590-8942, University of Nottingham), Anne Touboulic (0000-0001-8629-7199, University of Nottingham)
Año2024
Volumen43
Número5
Páginas784-803
Fecha de publicación2024-06-13
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEqual Opportunities International (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1758-7093 • E-ISSN: 2040-7149
EditorialEmerald (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1108/edi-07-2022-0194
OpenAlexW4390630857
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas63

Purpose Recent research has captured the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in widening gender inequalities, by highlighting that academic women have been disproportionately affected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women assumed most of the care labour at home, whilst working at normal patterns, leaving them unable to perform as normal. This is very concerning because of the short and long-term detrimental consequences this will have on women’s well-being and their academic careers. This article aims to stimulate a change in the current understandings of academic work by pointing towards alternative – and more inclusive – ways of working in academia. Design/methodology/approach The two authors engage with autoethnography and draw on their own personal experience of becoming breastfeeding academic mothers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings To understand the positioning of contemporary academic mothers, this study draws on insights from both cultural studies and organisation studies on the emergence of discursive formations about gender, that is “postfeminist sensibility”. Guided by autoethnographic accounts of academic motherhood, this study reveals that today academia creates an individualised, neutral (disembodied), output-focused and control-oriented understanding of academic work. Originality/value This paper adds to the conversation of academic motherhood and the impact of the pandemic on working mothers. The study theoretically contributes with the lens of “motherhood” in grasping what academic work can become. It shows the power of motherhood in opening up an alternative way of conceptualising academic work, centred on embodied care and appreciative of the non-linearity and messiness of life

Autoethnography · Embodied cognition · Originality · Pandemic · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Engineering · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Medicine · Work-Family Balance Challenges