Pre-pandemic arts business was often not conducive to working parents trying to raise a family. Melanie Gerlis urges the industry to take advantage of this Covid silver lining and not to return to the family-unfriendly arts business as usual.
Sorry to start 2021 on a downer, but to add insult to injury, the Covid-19 pandemic has piled on extra challenges for working mothers. Recent data from the United Nations found that since the virus struck, women have been doing significantly more unpaid, care-related tasks and were leaving the workforce much more rapidly than men. Simultaneous research conducted for the Freelands Foundation found that artists who are mothers have been hit with more than their fair share of the domestic burden during the pandemic.
It’s not just artists. The fragmented art world has a relatively high number of self-employed workers, myself included—a status that has historically suited parents. Increased flexibility is worth the sacrifices of a regular salary, paid holiday or sick leave (or at least it was until Covid-19—thanks again, pandemic).... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.
Sorry to start 2021 on a downer, but to add insult to injury, the Covid-19 pandemic has piled on extra challenges for working mothers. Recent data from the United Nations found that since the virus struck, women have been doing significantly more unpaid, care-related tasks and were leaving the workforce much more rapidly than men. Simultaneous research conducted for the Freelands Foundation found that artists who are mothers have been hit with more than their fair share of the domestic burden during the pandemic.
It’s not just artists. The fragmented art world has a relatively high number of self-employed workers, myself included—a status that has historically suited parents. Increased flexibility is worth the sacrifices of a regular salary, paid holiday or sick leave (or at least it was until Covid-19—thanks again, pandemic).... Keep reading on The Art Newspaper.