ABSTRACT
The closure of schools has tasked parents with the unenviable job of balancing work and childcare duties; a burden that inequitably fell on mothers, single parents, poorer families, and people of color. Intersectional theory describes how distinct, yet interlocking systems of inequity (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, etc.) work simultaneously to render people at the junction of multiple-marginalized identities (e.g., poor Black women) disparately vulnerable to inequality. By applying intersectional theory as a critical lens, this commentary seeks to better understand how structural inequity shapes childcare and childrens media use during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pandemic, mothers; ability to provide childcare has been primarily structured by employment status, which has radically changed for all workers under COVID-19 restrictions. Among women who lost work in the pandemic, their ability to provide childcare has been threatened at a far more basic level.
