Home: Reflections on Confinement
We spoke with experts in the field and this is what they said
The Family Care Collective contacted a select few experts in Canada who can contribute perspectives on the challenges around gender inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a continuation of the Home: Narratives of Confinement project– a qualitative research project which involved gathering letters written by volunteers, primarily mothers, about their experiences parenting, working, and living in confinement in Montreal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on the findings, our goal was to work with policy-makers, advocates and organizers in Quebec and more broadly in Canada to consider practical interventions that mitigate the impact of crises like COVID-19 on employment, caregiving, and mental and physical health, and their interaction with gender. The first step which we showcase here was to translate our data for experts in the field, and to glean their interpretations. Our hope is to deepen discussions and advocate for policy-level transformation towards wider safety nets that support marginalized and vulnerable mothers and caregivers, and pre-empt the extent of future disruptions.
We broke down the interviews into key themes:
Inequality in care work
Emotional impact of pandemic experiences
Layers of vulnerability
The pivot online
The future of mothering
Inequality in care work.
The pandemic brought to light and exacerbated existing inequalities in the expectations and responsibilities placed on mothers. Household chores and child care defaulted to mothers, who often also had work outside the home, while father's careers were prioritized. Moreover, the gendered division of labour was a problem in many employment sectors (e.g. academia, hospitals, essential workers, non-profits), where mothers were not offered support or flexibility during confinement.
Rani Cruz
Director of Development and Impact at the Welcome Collective
“During COVID, I was exhausted, it was a huge stressor on us, especially with online schooling. A lot of us had to do online schooling. Our partners would work. I was taking a Zoom call, at the same time as baking a cake for a kindergarten class, it was crazy. So a lot of us would end up working in the evenings until really late and every weekend I was working both days. I would say that women with kids probably worked more hours than everyone else, but only because we felt the guilt of not doing an eight hour day”
Dr. Fiona Green – Professor at The University of Winnipeg
“For those who are mothering, the work has always been overwhelming, and patriarchal constructs of motherhood all over the planet have an expectation that mothers are going to do the labour of caring for children, and that it is easy, innate, and doesn't need external support. If mothers ask for support, then there's something wrong with the mother. Rather, let's look at what raising children entails and what motherhood asks of someone.”
“When you don’t have your basic needs met that affects your mental health. If you can’t work, or your living conditions are poor… some of my chefs live with other families, or roommates, or extended family. But also the financial strain and uncertainty that comes with being a refugee claimant comes with a lot of anxiety. Like, are they even gonna be able to stay here? Is the work going to be stable?”
Leonora Indira King – Founder of the Park-Ex Curry Collective, Community Worker for Brique par Brique and Afrique au Féminin
“In terms of the division of labour in the house, during the pandemic was probably a reflection of what the relationship was like pre-pandemic, but like, ten times stronger. So if before the pandemic you were the main parent responsible for groceries, cooking, washing, childcare, that was exacerbated during the pandemic. If you had help in the home, much of that fell apart. For many of my colleagues who worked in healthcare were called in to work on COVID floors, so then there was this fear of how do you decontaminate yourself. There are all these extra steps to keep your family safe, protect your home.”
Dr. Fanny Hersson-Edery – Family Physician with the Herzl Family Practice Centre & Program Director of McGill University Department of Family Medicine
Emotional impact of pandemic experiences
The unfair burden on mothers, despite being innovative, creative, and resilient in the ways that they coped with the disruptions of the pandemic, had an impact on their emotional and mental well-being. Many mothers reported anxiety, stress, fear, frustration, despair. They were exhausted, burnt-out, and isolated from their usual support system.
For those who could not work from home (essential workers) there was the added fear that they might contaminate their home. This was worse if they lived with extended family, the immunocompromised or elderly.
“Mothers were completely burnt out and overwhelmed during the pandemic, even at the beginning when we were interviewing mothers for our book. They were exhausted, angry, frustrated, depressed, in despair, they just couldn’t do it. They were being innovative trying to make it all work, organizing themselves around their baby’s sleep schedule. Yet still, this had a huge impact on mental health.”
Dr. Andrea O’Reilly – Professor at York University
“Access [to healthcare] was a huge issue. It was positive when we pivoted to more telemedicine, providing telephone and video follow-ups. But there was a lot of anxiety that hadn’t been treated because people hadn’t been seen. That anxiety was exacerbated, worsened the pandemic and the lack of social supports, isolation. A good number of my patients started to drink a lot more alcohol, and that was problematic in terms of mood and sleep.”
Dr. Fanny Hersson-Edery – Family Physician with the Herzl Family Practice Centre and Program Director of McGill University Department of Family Medicine
Layers of vulnerability.
The Family Care Collective was grateful to interview professionals from a variety of fields, including the community sector. Rani Cruz and Leonora Indira King shared their experiences working with refugee claimants in Montreal during the pandemic. They explained how different types of marginalization (i.e., race, gender, status, poverty, religion, education, language) create layers of vulnerability to external shocks.
There was a lot of struggle– food banks were overloaded, immigration papers were delayed, some were isolated, while others had large families now confined to small homes. These interviews also exposed how much the Montreal community came through for their neighbours and supported each other through times of need.
“Now, because I work primarily with asylum seekers, these families don’t have access to subsidized daycare, so that means that they are even more confined to taking care of children at home, which limits the work they can do outside the home. So husbands generally bring in the income, with, for example, factory-based work, or food delivery. But as a consequence this obviously brings about like a lot of financial strain for these families. The types of jobs that this population can get are not very well paid and the working conditions aren’t great.”
Leonora Indira King – Founder of the Park-Ex Curry Collective, community worker for Brique par Brique and Afrique au Féminin
“We [the Welcome Collective] work with a lot of single mothers, 60% women, and 30% single mothers. During COVID, we were at a loss. Although they were switching jobs, doing late jobs so they could leave their kids at home sleeping alone while they made money. It was obvious that there was a significant burden on women, especially with children.”
Rani Cruz – Director of Development and Impact at the Welcome Collective
“I think another thing that was important was peer support. Women who delivered and then went home, having someone who calls you on a daily basis and check in. Everyone needs to have someone who reaches out to them or that they can reach out to easily. I think that’s important. We need to be creative in the ways we actually meet up, like a lot of group programming went online.”
Dr. Fanny Hersson-Edery – Family Physician with the Herzl Family Practice Centre and Program Director of McGill University Department of Family Medicine
The future of mothering.
Many thought that the pandemic illuminated problems in the system that we would take this opportunity to tackle and pave wave for a better world for mothering. Many feel that we have not done this, and instead reverted back to how it was before with little recognition for all the work that mothers did during the pandemic. What is needed is a cultural shift, a change in attitude, where the crucial contribution of mothers to society is recognized and honoured.
The interviews emphasized the importance of government support for housing, food security, and financial security for families who are struggling. They also were impressed by how important informal support networks were– neighbours, friends, family, volunteers, and community members in general were essential in supporting vulnerable communities.
“Now that we're on the other side of it, nothing has changed. there was great hope that after the pandemic, we would finally have to address the impossible state of motherhood. We're not doing that.”
Dr. Fiona Green – Professor at The University of Winnipeg
“I think the majority of people now realize that mothers pay a penalty for their care work, in their career, mental health, and leisure. Yet, not one person thanked mothers, who were essential workers during the pandemic, got us through the pandemic, and that mother work is absolutely vital and necessary for our society, and needs to be supported by public policy. But I would argue that this hasn’t translated into any real change.”
Dr. Andrea O’Reilly – Professor at York University
“Around the pandemic is really when a lot of people came together to help vulnerable communities. In Park-Ex, I saw a lot of mutual aid initiatives, which could help with finances, bringing people to their doctors’ appointments, helping with translation to access services. Entirely volunteer-run, informal networks of neighbours.”
Leonora Indira King – Founder of the Park-Ex Curry Collective, community worker for Brique par Brique and Afrique au Féminin
“People also needed financial support. If there was another pandemic now, that would really stretch people. We need safe, affordable housing. At the federal level need to be able to provide more stable housing. That’s an important part of people’s mental health.”
Dr. Fanny Hersson-Edery – Family Physician with the Herzl Family Practice Centre and Program Director of McGill University Department of Family Medicine
“We really need more community care for children collectively. And we do that very badly in the West, pathetically badly.”
Andrea O’Reilly
“The village is not just a metaphor.”
Fiona Green