Women's disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work remains a global barrier to employment and well-being. Addressing this grand societal challenge, we explored the lived realities of 10 low-income black mothers in South Africa, a context deeply shaped by apartheid and colonial legacies of inequality. Using a decolonial feminist framing, a transdisciplinary team conducted a two-year long participatory action research project with photovoice methods, positioning mothers as co-researchers and centring their often-silenced knowledge of the tensions between earning and caring. Insights were shared and refined through iterative engagements with community members, NGOs, and government policymakers, highlighting the need for systemic responses to care.
We offer the concept, The Motherload, to capture mothers' phenomenological experiences of unpaid care burdens as entangled with historical, economic, socio-cultural, and structural conditions. This shifts understanding of unpaid care work beyond individualised framings of mental or cognitive load. Thematic analysis of workshop transcripts yielded three themes: (1) The Motherload as a socially and structurally produced burden, (2) systemic barriers to mothers' employment, and (3) stakeholder responses to reimagining care.
By grounding conceptual development in marginalised lived realities in the Global South, this study advances work psychology by positioning care as central to psychological well-being and work futures, and demonstrating the value of transdisciplinary, participatory, and decolonial methodologies. The research aligns with the sustainable development goals on gender equality, decent work, and reduced inequalities. We present pathways for informing care-responsive policies, including reframing livelihoods and workplace design around unpaid care.