Abstract:
Why is the emancipation of women nullified in moments of historical crisis? This is the case of the current pandemic crisis, which thrusts into relief a historical regression in terms of women’s emancipation. Women are experiencing what might be called a “patriarchal return” to the past. This thesis attends to such a return. The discussion takes its cue from the Covid-19 Pandemic, which has created a childcare crisis and clearly revealed that motherhood is still construed as a substitute for services that institutions and the community should provide. The study launches a re-examination of motherhood: it (i) asks what a mother is; (ii) discusses the paradox at the root of a woman’s identity, whereby, no matter what their social identity is, women who are mothers are seen first and foremost as the main child-caregiver; (iii) reconsiders the symbolic order of the mother, an order of fixed beliefs, images and ideas, that presents mothers as the glue to what holds a society together.
