Paid and unpaid work during the Covid-19 pandemic: a study of the gendered division of domestic responsibilities during lockdown

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to deal with it have had economic and societal repercussions all over the world. In India, a nationwide lockdown was initiated on 25 March 2020 which continued in a diluted form as we were conducting the interviews for the paper in July 2020. The lockdown brought activities outside the home to a standstill and people were expected to stay indoors in order to ensure social distancing and break the chain of infection. The lockdown sparked its own problems and triggered discussions on issues including economic hardship and domestic violence. The question of how domestic responsibilities are shared among adults in families has also come to the forefront of debate. As hired part-time help was discontinued under lockdown, parents who had hitherto outsourced childcare and housework were suddenly left to fend for themselves. This article attempts to explore the manner in which such unpaid domestic responsibilities, especially childcare, were shared between parents in middle-class homes. The gendered nature of this division of housework and care work, and its varied implications on the paid work and careers of mothers and fathers, is the focus of inquiry.

KEYWORDS:

• Lockdown
• housework
• childcare
• paid work
• gendered division of domestic labour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Impact of Covid-19 Lockdown on Women in Assam, Findings from a rapid Assessment by Women’s Leadership Training Centre, April and May 2020, Women in Governance, North East Network, Action for inclusion and empowerment Trust, Kokrajhar – Chirang Jila Sanmilita Mahila Samiti, Supported by Zubaan. New Delhi.

2. (Reproductive labour describes the tasks which nurture future and current workers consisting of activities that are traditionally carried out by women for low or no wages comprising of childcare, heath-care, as well as everyday responsibilities for family members such as cleaning, shopping, cooking as well as bearing children (Hester, H., (2018)).

3. Lecture delivered by Chaudhuri, Maitrayee on Housework and the Pandemic in the Faculty Development Programme, held by Dibrugarh University, Assam from 26 May to 1 June 2020.

4. Lecture delivered by Chaudhuri, Maitrayee on Housework and the Pandemic in the Faculty Development Programme, held by Dibrugarh University, Assam from 26 May to 1 June 2020.

5. Ethical clearance for this study was obtained from the Ethical Committee for Biomedical and Health Research, Dibrugarh University, Assam.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Obja Borah Hazarika

Obja Borah Hazarika is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Dibrugarh University, Assam, India. Her current research interests lie in the area of paradiplomacy and society and politics in Northeast India.

Sarmistha Das

Sarmistha Das is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at Tezpur University, Assam, India. Her current research interests lie in the area of livelihood and agrarian studies.