Valencian working mothers during lockdown. Discourses on family life in uncertain times

Lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic brought about changes in both the labour market and in family arrangements, when care, work and personal life all took place at home. The main aim of this article is to analyse the impact of the pandemic on family life in Spain from the subjective perspective of women. We develop a topology of narrative configurations on work-life balance through 20 semi-structured interviews with heterosexual women with children or dependants in Valencia, Spain. The most significative idea that emanates from the women’s discourse is a kind of romanticisation of family-domestic space and time generated during the lockdown despite the uneven distribution of caregiving and household responsibilities during this timeframe.