72 Time March 15/March 22, 2021
SPECIAL REPORT
WOMEN and the PANDEMIC
When Lauren marTinez arrived
home after work to find her teenage
daughter feverish and vomiting, she
knew her pandemic plans were about
to fall apart. It was May 2020 and her
day care had closed, so Martinez, an as-
sistant office manager at a dentist’s of-
fice in Florida, had been rely ing on the
14-year-old to care for her infant son be-
tween middle- school classes online. “It
was not ideal,” she says. “But there was
literally no option but her.” Martinez’s
husband worked at the same office, and
the family needed both incomes.
Martinez had returned to work from
maternity leave about a month earlier,
and she had hoped to drive home every
day around noon to nurse her son. But by
that particular day in May, she had pretty
much given up on breastfeeding. She
says she wasn’t provided private space to
pump at work or the time to do so. “I was
so engorged,” she says. “I would literally
have to change my clothes every day be-
cause I would be leaking that whole time.
I don’t think men understand that.” Still,
she tried to get home when she could to
offer at least a few minutes’ relief to her
daughter.
But seeing her child sick and
vulnerable that evening, Martinez
knew this setup was unsustainable.
“There’s something about when you’re
a parent and your children get sick,
they get more childish. She seemed like
such a baby to me at that moment,” she
says. “I was like, I can’t do this to her
anymore.” Martinez texted her boss and
asked to work remotely. Her request was
denied. “I think he liked the Lauren
before—no- responsibilities Lauren—
better than this new mom who needed
accommodations,” she says. “Now I was
annoying or something.”
Within days, she was out of a job. “I
didn’t know what law had been violated