Role models in Corona time: back to the old tradition?

"We have long been equal". When Alexandra Zykunov hears this sentence, she does not know whether to cry or laugh. After all, Corona has finally managed to expose old role models. Or maybe not?

Women can do everything – work, have a career, rule. Men help with household chores, take parental leave and change babies. We have long been equal! What are you upset about?

About sentences like this! Even before Corona. And right now. For years I have been writing about feminism and motherhood and I get annoyed at how much one is lost when the other happens – how quickly parents slip into old role models: She takes parental leave – he goes to the office; she worked part-time for years – he full-time; she changes clothes, vacuums, cooks – and is happy that he "helps" around the house as if he were a guest there.

Many women choose it voluntarily, "I then hear and wonder how voluntary a decision can be when we have been taught for generations that a contradicting life model is" unnatural ". Why did you have children at all? "Unpacked (now we all imagine a middle finger), by the way, a reproach that fathers never hear. But no matter, we have long since been equal.

It's just over at some point. In a crisis, when the anti-feminist structures become so clear that ignoring them comes close to complicity: A study by the Berlin Science Center for Social Research shows that since Corona, mothers reduce their hours more often than fathers. That mothers quit their job more often. And make themselves (more) financially dependent on their partners – if only because 90 percent of all toddler mothers were in part-time jobs before Corona. At home, however, they did 4.5 hours more care work every day – unpaid, of course.

Equal rights? Ah yes.

When the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina pleaded in mid-April to keep most of the daycare centers and elementary schools closed for the time being, there were protests. Do they not understand the double burden that predominantly brings mothers to the brink of financial, physical and psychological breakdown? Oh well: The Leopoldina working group consisted of 24 older men and two women. One could almost have imagined that maternal concerns (let alone those of other marginalized groups) fall through the cracks in such homogeneous groups. It can happen – in a committee that makes recommendations for 82 million people. Yes exactly.

What are we complaining aboutSo around, it was said in the newspapers (or by some authorities) – that's exactly what home office is for. I didn't even know that working from home is synonymous with childcare. Then, in addition to changing diapers and playing games, kindergarten teachers will soon be able to write e-mails and answer calls. Everything easy, no problem at all.

It's almost funny that daycare workers argue with mothers because some feel pressured and the others don't belong. And now also call nurses complaining mothers as disagreeable. Who is right and wrong doesn’t care, because it’s super practical that it’s now women again who are getting their hair so beautiful instead of rebelling against the never-before-male-dominated political system. They could not do it at all, because after sleep deprivation, conference calls, games, cooking, cleaning and comforting they no longer have any strength.

Is it all a strange coincidence? No – a tried and tested tool of conservative politics: making mothers feel guilty in order to keep them small.

Exaggerated? Sounds like a conspiracy against women? It is. It is called patriarchy. And it is apparently just as difficult to eradicate as Covid-19.

Backflip!? Interview in the podcast "PARENT talk"

With their action "Roll backwards – without us!" ELTERN wants to draw attention to the problem that women tip over into old role models in the Corona period and fight against it together with them. You can hear an interview on the topic in the podcast.

Would you like to read more about the topic and exchange ideas with other women? Then have a look at the "Love, Relationship and Personality Forum" BRIGITTE community past!

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BRIGITTE 12/2020