Couples in Lockdown: “La vie en rose”?

Abstract

The lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on people's time use. This article analyses the changes in time spent on household tasks and parenting by men and women during the lockdowns of the spring and autumn of 2020 in France, by social category, education, working arrangements and family configurations, using data from the major longitudinal EpiCov survey. The time spent on housework was high in the spring of 2020 and caring for children was particularly time consuming. This additional domestic and parental burden affected both women and men, but women continued to perform the majority of the housework, in spite of the similar working conditions between the sexes during this period. During the first lockdown, women at the top of the social hierarchy, who generally perform fewer household chores, spent far more time than usual on these tasks, thereby temporarily reducing social differences.

Socioeconomic differences and the gender division of labor during the COVID‐19 lockdown: Insights from France using a mixed method

“…Women already embedded in configurations where most of the domestic and parental work was their responsibility and did not exhibit any particular unease during lockdown, especially since they had already reduced their working hours and established routines to alleviate their daily workload. Conversely, in the most egalitarian configurations of more equal task‐sharing, associated with higher‐educated couples (Zamarro & Prados, 2021), we found high levels of mental strain (Champeaux & Marchetta, 2022; Craig & Churchill, 2021), especially among women who, prior to lockdown, relied on external help for much of the domestic work and some of the childcare tasks. Suddenly, these women found themselves burdened with these unrewarding chores.…”

“…In France, nearly 11% of people in employment were unable to work during the first lockdown, the volume of hours worked fell by around 35% and working from home increased significantly (Bajos et al., 2020; Lambert et al., 2021). A French study on a non‐representative sample shows that men's time availability was associated with more total housework (Champeaux & Marchetta, 2022). We thus hypothesize that in response to the time shock of the first lockdown, time availability became a stronger determinant of unpaid work and its division between partners.…”

Les femmes dans l’enseignement supérieur : une (r)évolution inachevée

“…Les femmes continuent ainsi d'assumer la plus grande part du travail domestique, et ce même si elles s'investissent davantage dans le travail marchand (Sofer & Thibout, op.cit.). Des études récentes (Pailhé, Solaz & Wilner, 2022 ;Champeaux & Marchetta, 2022) ont par ailleurs montré que la répartition du travail domestique a très peu varié sous l'effet de la crise du Covid-19.…”

Discrimination in Access to Employment: The Combined Effects of Gender, Origin and Address

“…For example, adherence to a principle of equality in the sharing of childcare does not necessarily always go hand-in-hand with being in favour of income equality. Similarly, the gender-based division of paid work (Giraud & Rémy, 2013) and the gender-based sharing of domestic tasks among heterosexual couples (Champagne et al, 2015;Champeaux & Marchetta, 2022) persist, even within dual-career couples.…”