One Bad Mother: How One New Mother in Academia Realized She Was 'Mothered' Out

Abstract

This chapter explores the lived experience of a transitional time period for the author: becoming a new mother during an unprecedented period in history, the COVID19 pandemic. While much has been discussed about working mothers during the pandemic, the author discusses how the pandemic and motherhood were only two of the factors contributing toward a feeling of burn-out toward academic care work. Ultimately, a changing student demographic and new leadership duties coupled with the sexist role assignments and expectations of academia combined with the transition to motherhood and a pandemic were simply too much to cope with. The author recognizes that while she is certainly not the first woman to have been overburdened by the misogyny of academic care work, there is a cohort of academic leaders who became mothers and leaders during a time unlike any other in history.