Mostly not-employed mothers set the cultural standards for 'good' parenthood and 'good' education, while childless subjects set the standards in the world of work; [those] … want to do both, will be measured by the standards set by those … that are only into one of the spheres (Bomert and Leinfellner, 2017:118, citing König, 2012: 193) Lynch, Ivancheva, O'Flynn, Keating and O'Connor 2020 Care Ceiling in Higher Education -Irish Educational Studies (pre-publication version) 2relations more generally, especially in terms of their interface with love and/or care relations with family, colleagues and students.The paper also contributes to on-going debates about the gendered and care-disinterested character of organisations, (