This chapter focuses on interpreting the voices of women serving in essential work positions during COVID-19 in the U.S. Their voices tell the story of how the cultural hegemony associated with neoliberalism has fractured, exposing the absence of key social protections and the breakdown of civil engagement. During the pandemic, these front-line workers found themselves called to continue to provide care by consistently fulfilling their work obligations while managing heightened anxieties and conflicts among the people they serve. Creating new ways of engaging and working exposed the cracks underlying care provision in the U.S. and opened the door for a reinterpretation of what care could mean.
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Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked an outpouring of social science research. Articles written from a social science viewpoint explored various facets of social concerns, from attempts to understand the acceptance and refusal of mask wearing (Kaul & Palmer, 2023), to interpretations of trust in medicine (Makowska et al., 2022), to the multi-faceted impacts on marginalized peoples (Guevara & Ruskin, 2021; Knight et al., 2021; Lusk & Chandra, 2021; Olayo-Méndez et al., 2021; Waltenburg et al., 2021). In addition, exploring the intersecting realities of the coronavirus and the legitimation crisis of neoliberalism highlighted the contradictions of forms of national populism and global cosmopolitanism and the way in which that intersection enhanced awareness of various types of system crises (Condon, 2021; DeDominicus et al., 2021; Fraser & Jaeggi, 2018). Scholars also spoke to the gendered realities of essential workers who provided direct care, particularly emphasizing the intersectional realities for nurses employed during the pandemic, but also discussing the challenges of telework and distribution of work between parents (Couch et al., 2021; Kerr et al., 2021; Lyttelton et al., 2022; Nazareno et al., 2021; Qian & Hu, 2021).
Yet, the gendered realities of migrant workers or the implications for care associated with delivery in grocery store settings or among staff across sectors was not extensively discussed within the academic literature. To what extent are the sectors distinct (i.e., front line service – hair stylist, front-line service – higher education, front-line service - food co-op), and to what extent are the challenges, across sectors similar? If distinct, how, and if similar, in what ways? Certainly, prior to the pandemic, the literature on gender and work highlighted the disparate placement of women across the economic sector, and scholars have extensively documented issues with the pay gap, the glass ceiling, balancing work and home, marginalization and the need for an intersectional analysis (Collins et al., 2021; Collins & Bilge, 2016; Dowling, 2021/2022; Greer & Peterson, 2013; Hochschild, 1997; McNamara et al., 2013; Romero, 2017).