Mothers on the third shift during the corona virus epidemic

Abstract

The paper explores the gendered realities of work-life balance in Iceland during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular how these societal changes reflect and affect the gendered division of unpaid labour, such as childcare, household chores, and mental load. The study draws on written, open ended real-time diary entries, collected daily for two weeks during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic, in March and April 2020. The entries represent the voices of 37 mothers in heterosexual relationships. The findings show how burdened the mothers were in their everyday life during the first wave of the pandemic, juggling time between work and childcare. Their words reflected a reality in which they shouldered more of the housework and childcare than their partners and took on intense emotional labour as they tried to keep everyone calm and safe. Furthermore, the mothers described how the mental load, which involves the division of tasks at home, lay on their shoulders, as well as difficult decision making, causing them stress and frustration.