ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 establishes that mothers carry a disproportionate care burden in societies around the world and across a range of industries, including in the audiovisual industry. The chapter sets out current academic knowledge on the experience of creative work that is particular to mothers. It then outlines four key analyses that the book offers: the multiple ways in which motherhood is not seen as a benefit but rather as a liability to the formal work context, how the exclusion of mothers is complicated by other aspects of their class and religious identities, the means by which the cultural or subjective dimensions of the clash between care and work are co-opted by industry or articulated in productions, and possible ways forward or potential solutions to the ‘problem’ of mothering while also trying to sustain a career in media industries.
