Paper short abstract:

Based on the narrative of mothers from different social classes in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, the paper analyzes how the closure of daycare centers during the covid-19 pandemic affected the care of young children and the experiences of mothers in middle-classes and poor families

Paper long abstract:

Data from different countries and regions of the world indicate that the sanitary measures related to combating covid-19, in particular the school closure and the social isolation of families in the domestic units, globally impacted the experiences of motherhood and childcare (Green & O'Reilly, 2021). In Brazil, these effects were particularly dramatic because it was one of the countries that kept daycare centers and schools closed for the longest time, although it was, paradoxically, one of the countries that introduced the least lockdown to control the pandemic. The prolonged closure of daycare centers and schools intensified the culturally naturalized process of familiarization and feminization of childcare in the country (Lowenkron, 2022). Having as a backdrop this familial and maternalist ideal of caring for young children in the Brazilian context, associated with a stratified reproduction system characterized by unequal access to material and social resources for raising children and maintaining domestic units (Colen, 1995), this article comparatively analyzes how care arrangements were (re)organized during the covid-19 pandemic and the ways in which women mothers from different social classes who had access to daycare experienced motherhood during the period of suspension of face-to-face activities in public and private early childhood education institutions.