Societal Duty or Pragmatic Paradox? Exploring Midwives’ Experiences of Contradictory Work Demands During COVID-19 Lockdowns

We theorize how the nested-ness and knotted-ness of a pragmatic paradox shapes the experience of ensuing tensions. Our theorization draws on a qualitative, abductive study of essential workers (midwives) who were forced to accept contradictory work demands during COVID-19 lockdowns. Midwives experienced these demands as performing tensions stemming from an interconnected need to both protect wellbeing and risk wellbeing in their professional roles. In turn, midwives’ performing tensions were knotted with belonging tensions and nested within organizing tensions faced by societal leaders. Surprisingly, we found that although most midwives experienced contradictory and unrefusable demands as a disempowering pragmatic paradox, some experienced the same demands as a motivating duty. The crux was how midwives interpreted the alignment between knotted performing and belonging tensions. Our research provides a more nuanced view of how workers “live through” pragmatic paradoxes and offers insights into the complex interplay between power asymmetries and multi-level, interwoven paradoxes.