The Gendered Pandemic: The Ethics of Caring (Too Much)

Lauren Stetz; Michele Mekel

Lauren Stetz Penn State University
Michele Mekel

Abstract

Exploring the intersectional experiences of women during the coronavirus pandemic, this article utilizes the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 creative archive to portray the diverse, lived realities experienced by women. Drawing on feminist ethics of care, this article investigates how women within the domestic and professional realms pivoted to meet unexpected challenges. As women acceded to the “honorable feminine” stereotype and principle of self-sacrifice during the pandemic, women’s overall well-being and economic realities declined precipitously, and society lost critical perspectives. Visual artworks and creative writing narratives in Viral Imaginations provide documentation of, provoke empathy for, and create an understanding of the gendered imbalances of care work. Taking the form of women’s invisible, unacknowledged, and expected labor of care and nurturing, these inequities demand a societal reevaluation.

Author Biographies

Lauren Stetz, Penn State University

Lauren Stetz is the former graduate research assistant for the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project. She holds a Ph.D. in Art Education with a minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s degree in Art History from George Mason University. An experienced art educator, Lauren taught in both public and private schools and colleges throughout Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, DC, for 15 years. She has worked with racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse populations of students from pre-k to college level. Lauren’s research interests include data visualization, gender violence, and transnational feminisms. Utilizing feminist mapping methodologies, her work explores fusions of art and activism for empowerment, resistance, and pedagogy. She can be reached at lauren.stetz@gmail.com.

Michele Mekel

Michele Mekel served as the Co-PI of the Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project and is the associate director of the Penn State Bioethics Program. She is also an assistant teaching professor of bioethics, affiliate faculty of Penn State Law and the Rock Ethics Institute, and jointly appointed to the Humanities Department of the Penn State College of Medicine. An attorney by training, Mekel’s work focuses on law, policy, bioethics, health humanities, and pedagogy. She has a law degree, a master’s degree of health administration, a master’s degree of business administration, and a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. In addition, she is a published poet whose work has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, nominated for Best of the Net, and translated into Cherokee. Mekel can be reached via email at mmekel@psu.edu.