Relevance: Work And Economic life: Gender and division of labour
The burden of extra home production has fallen unequally on women with the potential for long-term negative impacts on their wages and job prospects, as well as potentially creating tensions within households.
More positively, new ways of working – and the fact that many fathers are also now doing more – may help to change gender norms and lead to a more equal allocation in some households in the longer term.
Evidence from economic research
- Women have been more likely to lose their jobs than men during the crisis. In part, this is because they work in sectors that are more adversely affected by lockdown. But the need for them to provide additional childcare may also have played a role.
- Families with young children are doing the equivalent of a working week in childcare.
- Women are doing the majority (more than 60%) of the additional childcare. This cannot be explained by the fact that they are less likely to be working: they typically do high levels of childcare even when they are working from home or at work. The increase in juggling will have damaging effects on their productivity and future career prospects.
- Men have also substantially increased the childcare and housework they do compared with before the crisis.
- But their childcare time is more sensitive to their employment than it is for women. They are also specialising in certain types of childcare activities (home schooling and play) and housework (grocery shopping).
- Nevertheless, more equal distributions of responsibilities in many households and new ways of working (notably increased home working) may lead to longer-term changes in gender norms.
- The additional burden of childcare and housework may also create tensions within the household, with potentially negative effects on the mental health of adults and children, and perhaps feeding into family instability.
Women bearing the brunt of childcare
Time-use survey evidence shows that women do more childcare and housework in normal times.
An increase in fathers’ contributions
Fathers are nevertheless doing a lot of childcare and substantially more than before the crisis. The Sevilla and Smith (2020) survey finds that men do an average of 19 additional hours per week, compared with 30 done by women. But men’s domestic labour is distinctive to that of women:
- Men’s childcare time is much more sensitive to their employment than it is for women. Sevilla and Smith (2020) show that women who are working do as much childcare as men who are on furlough and that there is only a more equal allocation when men are not working.
- Similarly, Andrew et al (2020) find that mothers who have stopped working for pay during lockdown while their partner continues to work end up doing twice as much childcare and housework as their partner. In the reverse situation, in families where the father has stopped working, the parents share childcare and housework equally.
Potential changes in gender norms
There is, as yet, no direct evidence on the impact of Covid-19 on gender norms. In many households, women are doing more childcare, and pre-existing norms may become entrenched.
But some households, particularly those where men are not working, are now experiencing a more equal gender division and this may lead to longer-term positive changes, particularly if they are combined with new ways of working (more working from home). Sevilla and Smith (2020) report that 28% of those who are currently working from home did not previously do so.
Previous research on the long-term effects of changes in domestic labour has mixed results. The evidence on gender and disasters suggests strong ‘reversion to the norm’ – that is, things returning to their long-term averages.
Some evidence from paternity leave policies suggests that temporary changes can have longer-term effects on social norms, shown by increases in the time that fathers spend in household activities, including childcare.
Two things are distinctive about the Covid-19 lockdown. The first is the scale of the demand-side shock. The changes have been profound.
The total amount of childcare being done at home is of a completely different order to usual amounts because of the closure of almost all formal childcare. The impact has also been across the board, affecting all families, meaning that almost all men have increased the quantity of childcare that they do.
But the second difference is that this is not a deliberate policy to promote a more equal distribution of childcare: changes in the division of labour are unintended consequences of measures to stop a virus spreading. The changes that have been brought about may need to be recognised and reinforced to have longer-term effects.