The Boundaries of Care

The Revelation of Invisible Social Labor in a Time of Crisis

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8131823
AutoresYael Ben-David (New York University, autor correspondente), Yael Ben David (0000-0003-4424-6419, New York University), Maya Adar (Baruch College), Tammy Rubel-Lifschitz (0000-0002-9152-5253, Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Ano2026
Data de publicação2026-03-11
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoWork and Occupations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0730-8884 • E-ISSN: 1552-8464
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/07308884261430337
OpenAlexW7135063554
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas41

This article examines how professional roles in feminized public-sector occupations become sites for the absorption of expanded labor expectations during crisis conditions. We introduce the concept of invisible social labor – professionally embedded work serving broad societal functions while remaining unrecognized in formal job descriptions. Findings of a qualitative case study in an Israeli primary school in the context of COVID-19 lockdowns show that in feminized, low-status occupations such as teaching, workers are expected to perform invisible labor, not only to support the family and organization, but also to benefit society. We used a Foucauldian framework and drew on interviews, ethnographic observations, and analysis of media discourse, policy documents, and organizational correspondence to uncover the structural mechanisms through which national care work was discursively expanded and naturalized. We developed a power-informed model of the recursive production of invisible social labor to demonstrate how power operates across institutional, public, communal, and individual spheres through mechanisms of disciplinary control (surveillance, critique, managerial disregard) and subjectification (internalized moral imperatives, self-sacrifice). The study contributes to the literature on public-sector work boundaries by showing how feminized occupations facilitate the absorption of diffuse social demands into professional practice, blurring boundaries between maternal, organizational, and societal expectations

Context (archaeology · Discipline · Ethnography · Neoliberalism (international relations · Participant observation · Power (physics · Subjectification · Temporary work · Work (physics · Emotional Labor in Professions · Social Work Education and Practice · Work-Family Balance Challenges