Nach der Krise ist vor der Krise ist in der Krise …: Geschlechtliche Arbeitsarrangements und ungelöste Care-Konflikte aus der Sicht von Pflegekräften während der Corona-Krise

The “care crisis” had already been diagnosed in the social sciences long before the “Covid-19 crisis”. During the pandemic, the structural contradictions of the care crisis – increased demand for care work on the one hand and a shortage of skilled workers in the care professions on the other – are becoming even more apparent, exacerbating the working conditions for the predominantly female workers in care work professions. This contribution examines the everyday and biographical work arrangements of formal care workers during the Corona pandemic. The empirical databases are qualitative interviews with parents who are employed in care working fields. Findings on the gender division of labour shed light on the extent to which an expanded child care service serves gender equality and contributes to crisis prevention with a more efficient health and elderly care system. In particular, the type of work arrangement of quasi-single mums shows that social norms of motherhood and increased demands on “essential workers” are contradictory to each other, which disadvantages female care workers.