The Motherload continues to inspire postgraduate research across master's and doctoral degrees, reflecting the academic capacity development taking place within the project. Explore the work being done below and learn about the topics.
Masters dissertations
Contextualising unpaid care work: Exploring the experiences of Black mothers from marginalised communities in Cape Town.
Author: Latoya Gama | Supervisor: Ameeta Jaga
Dissertation submitted
An intersectional exploration of the Motherload among Black mothers in professional occupations in South Africa.
Abstract: Recent work-family research has begun recognising the most invisible aspects of unpaid care work to be the physical, cognitive and emotional care load placed on women. The concept of the Motherload, which describes the "highly gendered, often invisible, and undervalued work that those who perform mothering undertake, hindering their economic security, safety and wellbeing", was explored through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 11 Black mothers in professional occupations in South Africa. The data were analysed through an intersectional analytical lens to understand how motherhood, race and professional occupation shape the experiences of the Motherload. The study's findings revealed the ways in which the Black working mothers experienced the Motherload as they navigated the cultural expectations in the household and community, as well as their professional workplace identity. Three key themes were analysed, which underscored the cultural care load placed on Black women and how that shapes the Motherload through (1) Jostling between tradition and modernity: Black women navigating the Motherload, (2) Black tax and caring beyond the household, and (3) Cultural dissonance and carrying the Motherload. Recommendations were presented for improving the retention and attraction of Black working mothers through recognising the motherload within the workplace.
Author: Moletlo Somo | Supervisor: Ameeta Jaga
Access dissertation: Somo, M. (2025) An intersectional exploration of the Motherload among Black mothers in professional occupations in South Africa. OpenUCT
PhD theses
Digital labour, unpaid care work, and economic inclusion in South Africa.
Abstract: This study explores how digital labour frameworks can be reimagined to integrate social reproduction and support care economies in South Africa. While digital economies are frequently positioned as avenues for empowerment and inclusion, they often reproduce longstanding gendered exclusions. Dominant frameworks render unpaid care work invisible, relying on narrow metrics of productivity that privilege market-facing, monetised activity. As a result, the social reproduction work that underpins daily life remains undervalued and unsupported. As care work becomes increasingly mediated through digital tools, new and undertheorised forms of digital social reproduction are emerging – a gap that is particularly pressing in the Global South, where informal labour and unpaid care are central to survival. Grounded in postcolonial ethics of care, intersectionality, and feminist economics, this research centres the lived experiences of low-income mothers, a group often excluded from dominant narratives about digital labour. It surfaces new insights into how care is enacted in digitally mediated contexts and develops a care-informed conceptual framework for digital labour that challenges prevailing assumptions about productivity and value. The study uses a qualitative, interpretive, and longitudinal design. Through multimedia digital diaries and interviews, it traces how low-income mothers use mobile phones in everyday caregiving, examining these as vital, unpaid forms of digital labour that sustain households under constraint. By conceptualising and theorising digital care work, the study contributes to feminist debates on digitisation, social reproduction, and informal economies in the Global South, with implications for inclusive digital economies and care policy. In doing so, it also supports national and global development agendas, including South Africa’s priorities and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 1, 5, 8, 10).
Author: Jess Capstick-Dale | Supervisor: Ameeta Jaga
Thesis in progress