An online panel discussion was held on Monday featuring Cosumnes River College Business Professor Sherrie Carinci and Sacramento State University graduate students, who discussed self-care and navigating life in the new normal since COVID.
Carinci said it is important to acknowledge the stress of the triangulation of jobs, the private sphere, public sphere and educator.
“With COVID, women already had what we call ‘double duty,’ meaning that they worked all day and then they usually came home,” Carinci said. “Women do 80% more of the work in the home than men do, meaning homework, dinners, laundry, so now with COVID, they also became their kids’ teachers, so now they’re doing what we call ‘triple duty.’”
Carinci explained navigating back to the new normal for COVID.
“It’s pretty much, a lot of companies aren’t having people go back to their companies, so they’re now choosing perhaps working from home,” Carinci said.
Carinci said that it is ok for students to not be perfect and to acknowledge self-care and that they’re not alone.
“They might learn from each other, like what are they doing, people might say ‘I’m on my computer all day long,’” Carinci said. “COVID made us all learn on screen, work on screen and so we’re finding people are really suffering from screen fatigue.”
Carinci explained the burdens that women take on.
“We think that cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping shouldn’t just be one way,” Carinci said. “Men or partners need to step up and be part of this.”
The event was moderated by CSUS Professor of Gender Equity Dr. Riana Pella and Carinci.
The CSUS panelists and Los Rios students answered questions regarding their experiences during the pandemic, including a reaction to something or someone that was out of character for them, changing ways to manage life and the new normal after COVID and self-care during stressful times.
Sacramento State University’s Women’s Resource Center Program Coordinator and graduate student in the gender equity program Aisha Engle, who was a panelist, said that a quote from Audre Lorde resonated with her throughout the pandemic which was ‘caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.’
“I feel like that has been a testament of recognizing whether it’s at home or at the workplace, I can be gentle with myself and I can take this moment as an act because it was like a grand pause from the universe to really center myself,” Engle said. “I think part of that has been drinking water, taking pauses, going on walks.”
History Professor Diana Reed said she appreciated the warm environment and atmosphere that Carinci had created online to allow people to feel comfortable sharing their experiences.
“It was really neat to see CRC collaborate with Sac State and have a kind of partnership there,” Reed said. “That was something kind of unique about that particular event.”