Equal Parenting Meeting the Gender Care Gap

Many parents today want to share paid work and care work equally. Yet everyday life often tells a different story: after the birth of a child, traditional patterns of responsibility frequently re-emerge — even when both parents are committed to the idea of equal parenthood.

This tension becomes particularly visible in academia. Fixed-term contracts, expectations of mobility, competitive pressure and a culture of constant availability meet the realities of care work, family organisation and mental load. As a result, the aspiration of equal parenthood can quickly come under pressure in everyday academic life.

The keynote draws on current data and practical experience to explore why equal parenting is often more difficult to realise in academic careers than many parents expect or hope. It focuses on the interplay between mental load, the gender care gap and academic work culture. In addition, it introduces concepts and tools that can help make care work more visible, negotiable and more fairly distributed.

The event is aimed at international and German researchers at TU Darmstadt, as well as anyone interested in the compatibility of academia and parenthood, equal parenting and mental load.

Speaker: Dr. Lena Eckert, icp – institute for critique and practice, Network Motherhood und Science 

Language: English
Workload:  90 minutes
Attendance mode: Online via Zoom. Login details will be sent before the event.

Registration required: Skills Portal