English Abstract
ABSTRACT :
This paper examines the relationship between school closures
during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ideology of intensive
mothering through analysis of posts on lockdown learning in an
online mothering community. It is argued that although the
school closures seemed to constitute an endorsement and
normalisation of intensive mothering ideology [Hays (1996). The
Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood. New Haven: Yale University
Press] by the machinery of government, and increased the
pressure upon many women, some mothers resisted these
expectations in this online forum. The online community served
as a space in which intensive mothering expectations were
articulated [Lehner-Mear (2020). “Good Mother, Bad Mother?
Maternal Identities and Cyber-Agency in the Primary School
Homework Debate.” Gender and Education 33 (3): 285–305] but
also offered an arena for cyber-agency, enabling women to
express negative emotions, and normalising the rejection of
expert constructions of mothering.
