Mothers in Lockdown: Thackray Museum of Medicine Leeds hosts free webinar with journalist Anna Whitehouse
and live on Freeview channel 276
Mothers in Lockdown focuses on 12 working mums and their experiences juggling various responsibilities including, working from home, childcare and home schooling, assuming
these roles during an exceptionally emotional period.
It features portraits taken remotely by photographer Fran Monks last May and June that capture the way so many of us have stayed connected through video calls and caught a glimpse of life inside other family's homes during lockdown.
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Hide AdNow available to view on the website of the Thackray Museum of Medicine, they form part of a research project by the Huddersfield Centre for Research in Education and Society at the University of Huddersfield.
On being asked to capture the images, Fran said: "I thought that was a great idea as, by that time, I was a home with three children of my own and I understand quite a lot of the challenges that were being faced by women who were trying to juggle work and childcare and household management all at the same time.
"We wanted to capture them both in their role as home-schooling mothers and also as an individual so sometimes the portraits were of the women working in makeshift workspaces or of them trying to catch a moment of relaxation."
Lead researcher Jim Reid each of the women had worked to develop a career or business in her own terms, but lockdown quickly ended or constrained this independence.
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Hide AdHe said: "In particular, while some mothers experienced and negotiated with their partners an equal share of effort in the home, the majority of mothers in the study did more education and
emotional work with the children during lockdown. Consequently, where work was shared the type of work was not."
The research report notes that "no one in authority sought the advice of mothers and while they were asked by loved one’s ‘how they were doing’, no one asked what they needed. A consequence of the response to the pandemic was to silence mothers as both care givers and in terms of their own care needs."
It is this silencing of women that the exhibition hopes to address by allowing the women featured to each share their experiences in their own words.
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Hide AdTo celebrate the launch of the exhibition, Anna Whitehouse - a mum, journalist, campaigner, and presenter - will join the museum on Wednesday March 10 to host a free webinar at 4pm.
The event will focus on the research findings, creative processes and experiences of the women who participated, with the webinar panel including Jim Reid, Fran Monks and two of the mums involved in the project.
In a video produced for the exhibition, Fran added: "I do wonder to myself how are those women doing now. I'm sure that those women will be able to face the challenges and succeed.
"It's great that we've got the pictures of them doing that, for history."
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Hide AdThe online exhibition is available at www.thackrayhealthheroes.co.uk/mothers-in-lockdown and can be viewed until August. Visit thackraymuseum.co.uk/event/free-webinar-with-anna-whitehouse/ to register for the webinar.
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