Raging Against the “Neoliberal Hellscape”: Anger, Pride, and Ambivalence in Civil Society Responses to the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the <scp>USA</scp>

Leap, Braden; Stalp, Marybeth C.; Kelly, Kimberly

doi:10.1111/anti.12813

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Labour in the private sphere is also informed by state, market and cultural institutions that encourage some to sacrifice their well-being on behalf of others ( Hochschild and Machung, 1989 ; Laslett and Brenner, 1989 ; Leap et al, 2022a ). PPE makers would not have needed to place their health, finances and social standing at risk if PPE stockpiles and manufacturing facilities in the United States had not been hallowed out by decades of neoliberal political-economic restructuring ( Leap et al, 2022a , 2022b ), for example. Feminized work in the private sphere can be heroic, and this heroism is just as political as heroism in the public sphere.…”

Section: Discussion and Conclusion: Gendered Work And Attributions Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Supplies of PPE were quickly exhausted in the USA in early 2020. After decades of neoliberal reforms had weakened public health infrastructure and encouraged for-profit production facilities to be moved out of the United States, neither state institutions nor private businesses could provide adequate PPE supplies (Leap et al, 2022a(Leap et al, , 2022b. Individuals and civic organizations were encouraged to voluntarily produce and distribute substantial amounts of masks, face shields, hand sanitizer and other protective equipment.…”

Section: Heroic Ppe Production: Voluntarily Incurring Risks To Bolste...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Me? A Hero? Gendered Work and Attributions of Heroism among Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2022

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The gendered features of adults’ attributions of heroism to themselves and others has received substantially less scholarly attention than the gendered dynamics of media representations of (super)heroes. Utilizing 78 interviews and 569 self-administered questionnaires completed by adults in the United States who were voluntarily making personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, we show how respondents effectively deployed popularized assessments of the relative value of gendered labour in the private and public spheres to shift attributions of heroism from themselves to others. Though media portrayals at the outset of the pandemic depicted these volunteers working in their homes as heroes, respondents insisted that the real heroes were those working in the public sphere. Even if media representations increasingly frame women as heroes, these results suggest that the long-standing associations between men and heroism will likely remain in place if feminized labour associated with the private sphere of households remains devalued.

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Section: Discussion and Conclusion: Gendered Work And Attributions Of...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Heroic Ppe Production: Voluntarily Incurring Risks To Bolste...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Me? A Hero? Gendered Work and Attributions of Heroism among Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2022

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“…However, disasters do not always result in redoing gender (Leap, Stalp, and Kelly 2022c). Performing gendered disaster carework may empower specific individuals and amplify social solidarity while reinforcing gender roles and norms (Leap 2018).…”

Section: The Third-sphere Of Community Careworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volunteer COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment Makers: Third Sphere Labor, Caring Masculinities, and Redoing Gender

Kelly

Leap

Stalp

2023

Men and Masculinities

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In the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., thousands of volunteer makers stepped up to produce PPE through third sphere labor, volunteer work that emphasizes community maintenance. Drawing on 78 semi-structured interviews and 662 open-ended questionnaires, we consider how third sphere carework could destabilize hierarchies between public, private, and third sphere labor and in the valuation of feminized versus masculinized work. We find women and men makers differed in what they made, but not in their motivations for producing PPE or how they valued the work of other makers. Makers rejected the idea that they should perform such work without any appreciation from third sphere recipients, but private sphere demands limited women makers more than men. Throughout men makers’ efforts, we find ample evidence of caring masculinities as a response to disaster. We conclude with a consideration of what these trends mean for redoing gender and third sphere carework.

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“… 2022 ; Leap, Stalp et al. 2022 ). Researchers must grant the gendered contours of unpaid labor being done outside of homes in response to the pandemic greater consideration.…”

Section: Recommendations For Bolstering Research Examining Gendered L...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reorganizations of Gendered Labor During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Review and Suggestions for Further Research

Leap

Stalp

Kelly

2022

Sociological Inquiry

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Across a range of countries, analysts have found that adaptations to the COVID‐19 pandemic often exacerbated previously existing labor inequalities between men and women in formal employment markets and households. This has been especially true for mothers with children in their households. Drawing on decades of sociological and feminist scholarship on labor, we suggest the following three strategies to strengthen ongoing research concerning pandemic‐induced reorganizations of gendered labor. First, ongoing research should expand considerations of gendered labor to account for more types of work and workers. Second, initial findings should be extended through the continued utilization of diverse methodologies to better account for the ambivalent experiences and meanings associated with emergent reorganizations of gendered work during the pandemic. Finally, ongoing research should pursue intersectional analyses of gendered labor that are sensitive to the complex dynamics of place and time. By expanding and strengthening considerations of gendered labor in these manners, ongoing analyses could generate more comprehensive, precise findings that better guide policy interventions meant to address the gendered inequities being sharpened by the pandemic. Foundational theoretical understandings of gendered labor and its associated inequalities could also be extended.

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Raging Against the “Neoliberal Hellscape”: Anger, Pride, and Ambivalence in Civil Society Responses to the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the USA

Cited by 9 publications

References 81 publications

Me? A Hero? Gendered Work and Attributions of Heroism among Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Me? A Hero? Gendered Work and Attributions of Heroism among Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Volunteer COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment Makers: Third Sphere Labor, Caring Masculinities, and Redoing Gender

Reorganizations of Gendered Labor During the COVID‐19 Pandemic: A Review and Suggestions for Further Research

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