This report aims to provide basic facts about gender inequality in income, time use, and wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. We compare employment, income, time use, and well-being figures reported before and during the lockdown period (late March to April 2020) of the same group of individuals by analyzing longitudinal data from the 2020 UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the full UKHLS data. Earlier studies on the topic are based on cross-sectional data with different survey designs and sample selections. -Women undertake the major share of housework and childcare and form 80% of the health and social care workers who are more exposed to the virus, among people aged between 20 to 49. -There was a 30% reduction in paid work time for both women and men, and the percentage was 45% among non-key workers. Women and men experienced a similar amount (3-4 hours) of an increase in weekly housework hours. We also note a comparable reduction in monthly labour income for women and men. -Women, especially mothers experienced a more dramatic decline in well-being amid the COVID pandemic.-Single mothers fare the worst in the labour market, are the least likely to own a house, have a car in the household, and have the highest risk of depression, which makes them particularly vulnerable in the current circumstances. Single parents experience the largest 7% increase in the non-working rates during the lockdown period.-Childcare support is critical when the usual support networks, such as grandparents, friends, and neighbours, can no longer help with childcare, especially for mothers.

We examine how the earnings, time use, and subjective wellbeing of different social groups changed at different stages/waves of the pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). We analyze longitudinal data from the latest UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the earlier waves of the UKHLS to investigate within-individual changes in labor income, paid work time, housework time, childcare time, and distress level during the three lockdown periods and the easing period between them (from April 2020 to late March 2021). We find that as the pandemic developed, COVID-19 and its related lockdown measures in the UK had unequal and varying impacts on people’s income, time use, and subjective well-being based on their gender, ethnicity, and educational level. In conclusion, the extent of the impacts of COVID-19 and COVID-induced measures as well as the speed at which these impacts developed, varied across social groups with different types of vulnerabilities.

This article presents an investigation of the dynamics of women's gender attitudes from the perspective of women's conflicting employment and childrearing responsibilities. It examines the independent and joint effects of motherhood and employment on gender attitudes using combined data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society panel study. The results of fixed effects models show no evidence supporting a direct influence of either motherhood or employment on women's attitudes toward a traditional division of labor. However, changes in attitudes are observed when motherhood and employment statuses are considered jointly. Specifically, women are less traditional after the transition to motherhood than before only if motherhood is combined with full-time employment. By contrast, women are more traditional after the transition to motherhood than before only if motherhood coincides with their withdrawal from the labor force. These associations remain robust after considering feedback from earlier attitudes. All the findings suggest that the emergence and realization of incompatibility between women's employment and childrearing responsibilities reshape women's gender attitudes during the transition to motherhood.

Based on the data from the Beijing College Student Panel Survey (BCSPS), this paper examines the effect of study fields on gender disparities in early occupational achievement. Multinomial logistic regression suggests that field of study can only explain part of the occupational gender differences. Women are more likely than men to become office clerks-a typical female occupation even if the field of study is controlled. Relative to clerks, gender disparities in entry into professional and technicians (male-typed of occupations) are largely attributed to women's underrepresentation in science and engineering fields. However, women's disadvantages in attaining managerial or marketing occupations are even enlarged after controlling the field of study. By innovatively adopting simulation strategy, our results further demonstrate that after considering gender role expectations, that is, if women would have the same likelihood of taking science and engineering fields at college as men given their social and economic background, women's disadvantage in entering professional and technicians would largely diminish. Despite the pervasive influence of gender norms, egalitarian gender attitudes at job entry can partially moderate women's disadvantage in entering male-dominated occupations. Women with more traditional gender attitudes are more likely to be office clerks. In contrast, those tending to be more progressive more likely to become managers. In this vein, we argue that gender norms are the main driving force behind the occupational gender differences.

This study provides new evidence on how the growingly significant digital life shapes Chinese adolescents' cognitive and mental health outcomes based on their gender, parental education, and geographical location. Using the China Education Panel Survey, a nationally representative survey following 12-15-year-old students in 2013 and 2014, and individual fixed-effect models, we find that more time spent on the Internet is associated with higher selfreported depression scores. This negative impact on mental health is more substantial for girls, those with lesseducated parents, and those living outside the city center. The link between Internet use and cognitive development is almost null. Time spent online negatively affects Chinese young adolescents' subjective well-being but has little impact on their cognitive development. The link between Internet use time and subjective well-being also depends on gender, parental education, and the geographical location of those adolescents. The heterogeneous impacts of Internet use time offer crucial new evidence to the multiple dimensions of the digital divide among adolescents in China.