ABSTRACT
A common refrain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been that although we may be in the same storm, we are not in the same boat. Despite the cataclysmic upheavals of the pandemic, one fact remains unchanged: Motherwork remains invisible, devalued, and taken for granted. In this chapter, we center on the voices of mothers in academia (motherscholars), whose voice has been marginalized and subordinated in academic spaces, by examining the experiences of motherscholars and insights for transforming and decolonizing higher education policy and practice. We analyze two studies, one an innovative arts-based study and the second a longitudinal survey study, to understand how the pandemic impacted academic mothers and how to improve higher education to enhance equity and inclusion. Findings showed that during the pandemic, there was (and is) an exacerbation of stress on the multiple roles motherscholars took on and found three key experiences of overwhelming responsibilities, ingrained gender roles, and blurred boundaries of work and personal life. Ultimately, we found that to create equitable spaces for motherscholars, and other caregiving faculty and graduate students, it is essential to decolonize higher education through structural and cultural change to lay a foundation and rebuild a structure that creates, supports, reimages, and sustains a better organizational climate into a more accessible, diverse, productive, and meaningful institution.
