Thread by @TaraDWarner

This feature of @JessicaCalarco 's work on #PandemicParenting was all over my feed yesterday, rightly so. It’s the most accurate & validating take I’ve read yet. Read it, because... 1/

annehelen.substack.com/p/other-countr…

...it makes for an important contrast w/ work like this: nature.com/articles/s4156…

Yes, #womeninSTEM are underrepresented & #COVID childcare demands are pushing them out.

Yes, increased funds, RA support & teaching/service releases are much needed. 2/

But what about folks like me? I’m a quantitative social scientist. My work is entirely secondary data analysis. I’m not conducting experiments, running a lab, or engaged in any regular tasks of bench science. 3/

But I’m still a scientist. A scientist trying to #WFH while managing #elearning 1st & 3rd grade classes.

I need long periods of uninterrupted time to read, ponder, synthesize, formulate. I am lucky that my classes have been all online. 4/

My research productivity is hampered not by a lack of resources but a lack of time, energy, & cognitive capacity. There are no easy fixes for that. I don't need an RA or lab funds. I need to stop having to be 4+ full time people all at once. 5/

Because of the #pandemic the mental load has increased exponentially. It is inescapable. It is crushing. 6/ english.emmaclit.com/2017/05/20/you…

To be productive I need life to be back to normal. I need my kids back in school, but that will not happen anytime soon (our #positivity rate is consistently >18%). My community cannot be trusted to be safe. They prove that time & again. 7/

I need to not spend every day fighting my kids to do their work; be on their #GoogleMeet. To not have them hurl insults at me when frustrated at whatever math game they're assigned & then comment about my “forehead wrinkles.” 8/

I need them to stop eating everything in the house (but what else is there to do?). Stop leaving cups everywhere. Stop leaving food wrappers all over. Now I need to remember to have pest control spray inside next month. Again. 9/

I need to stop having to manage their emotions, to think about the few possible outings where they might have a masked play date. I need to have to stop explaining why they can’t play w/ other n’hood kids (who don’t #WearAMask ). 10/

Spouse & I are both academics. Yet in crisis mode we’ve fallen into gendered roles. I need to stop having to plan 2 weeks worth of meals to minimize how often I go out for groceries. I need produce to keep longer. I need #mealplans to be cheaper. 11/

I need someone to deliver the #BigSalad

I need my kids to stop needing 45+ mins of stories & snuggles to settle their anxious minds every. single. night. I need them to stop climbing into my bed anyway. I need to stop being always tired but never sleepy. 13/

#PandemicParenting has not just pushed women out of science. We are burnt out. Our brains are compromised. Our #research will likely not recover. Our #Health might not either. 14/

I recently had a paper rejected. The #reviewers said it needs a stronger theoretical framework. They're right. This was going to lay groundwork for a new line of research. No idea how I’ll ever have the mental clarity to give it the attention it needs. 15/

Other scholars will move forward on these ideas. I'll be a #homeschoolingmom again in the spring. There is no end in sight. Folks should sit with that. This is the predicament that so many women face right now. 16/

Many women have been outright pushed out of the work force. But many of us are still hanging on, trapped by the norms of intensive work & caregiving, feeling like failures at both. What we need is not just institutional. It is cultural. Structural. 17/

Women don't need more thrown at us. Not advice, or webinars, or #mentalminutes. We are drowning, watching our ambitions slip away while we pour someone another bowl of Cheez-Its, turn the lights off in an empty room, & pick up the 100th random sock. 18/18