Working and Caring at Home: Gender Differences in the Effects of Covid-19 on Paid and Unpaid Labor in Australia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic caused working from home to spike abruptly, creating a unique spatial organization of paid and unpaid work that was not so different for women and men. This paper reports early results from a survey of Australian men and women, conducted during state-imposed lockdown in May 2020, on how the pandemic affected paid work, domestic work, and caring responsibilities. Findings reveal a rise in domestic work burdens for all. Women shouldered most of the extra unpaid workload, but men’s childcare time increased more in relative terms, so average gender gaps narrowed. The relative gap in housework remained. While the lockdown generated lower subjective time pressure, dissatisfaction with balance of paid and unpaid work rose markedly and from a much higher base for women. Overall, the results reflect a need for sustained policy attention to the care economy to narrow rather than widen gender disparity.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Lockdowns created extra unpaid work, at the same time as people also worked from home.

• Men pitched in more, but only to about the same amount as women were doing before the pandemic.

• Employers expected their workers to be as productive as before the pandemic, ignoring care burdens.

• Childcare and school closures disproportionally affected women’s paid and unpaid work.

• Women’s economic security will be at growing risk unless affordable care services are available.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• care
• unpaid labor
• gender equality
• Australia

JEL Codes:

• J16
• J18
• J22

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number: FT150100067].

Notes on contributors

Lyn Craig

Lyn Craig is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy and ARC Future Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She researches the contemporary family, work, and social change, with emphasis on gender equity and time demands of employment, family care, and social reproduction; intersections between the family and the economy; life course transitions; and comparative family and social policy.

Brendan Churchill

Brendan Churchill is Research Fellow in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research program currently focuses on work and employment, including the gig economy and the future of work, and the impact of precarious work on young people, women, and families. He is on the Associate Board of Work, Employment, and Society.