“I Study When All My Family is Asleep”. Gender, Time and Space in Online Education in the COVID-19 Pandemic*

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered the ways of working, studying, and interacting globally, forcing people and communities to reinterpret their daily activities. This study analyzes the changes experienced by working mothers who began distance studies at an Argentine university during the second year of the pandemic. Results indicated how spaces and time were transformed, and gender inequalities deepened. The pandemic, above all, impacted the positions and negotiations that working mothers managed to establish to continue studying in a virtual university environment. In these cases, conquering time and space for learning is, at the same time, an act of acceptance and innovation as a woman.