Families in quarantine: COVID‐19 pandemic effects on the work and home lives of women and their daughters

Abstract

The onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic in March 2020 disrupted the lives of millions of US families, with rising unemployment and initial lockdowns forcing nationwide school and daycare closures. These abrupt changes impacted women in particular, shifting how families navigated roles. Even pre‐pandemic, US women were responsible for the majority of household labor and childcare, and daughters bore greater chore responsibility than sons. We surveyed 280 families early in the pandemic (Spring 2020) and another 199 families more than a year later (Summer 2021) about pre‐pandemic versus current work‐family conflict (WFC), division of labor and schooling, and children's daily activities. Early on, mothers reported increased WFC (especially family impacting work), mothers assumed primary responsibility for children's education at home, and daughters spent more time doing chores and educating siblings. One year in, WFC remained high but mother's stress was lower, parents reported working less from home, and children largely returned to face‐to‐face schooling. Yet, children, especially daughters, actually spent more time caring for siblings than early in the pandemic, though less time on chores overall. We conclude that policies that support families such as paid family leave and subsidized childcare are needed to right the gender inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic.

The marital and fertility sentiment orientation of Chinese women and its influencing factors – An analysis based on natural language processing

“…Shifting values regarding marriage and fertility may be influenced by modern societal notions, with women placing greater emphasis on personal desires and autonomous choices, leading to scepticism about and resistance to traditional views on marriage and fertility [ 60 , 61 ]. Last, the influence of family and social cultural beliefs can result in women’s assuming a greater burden of household chores and childcare responsibilities, preventing the equal division of labour and support [ 62 , 63 ] and thereby generating negative emotions. In conclusion, these factors collectively contribute to women’s negative emotions towards marriage and fertility, requiring further attention and exploration from relevant authorities.…”

“How can you really step up?”: The dad-double-bind grounded theory of fathering in the United States during COVID-19.

“…For example, flexible employer policies (e.g., working from home) may allow the type of fathering engagement that many of our participants described in the early months of COVID-19. Further, scholars are beginning to describe how policies that promote paid family leave, subsidized child care, and universal prekindergarten may provide an important safety net for families and equalize gender division of labor both at work and at home in a way that empowers, rather than constrain, father engagement (Coyle et al, 2023; Ooms, 2019).…”

Understanding women's work, children and families during the COVID‐19 global pandemic: Using science to support women around the globe

“…It also illustrates the gendered nature of work‐family conflict, flexibility in work requirements, and how the negative impacts of these forces may be borne out by this generation of youth who are exposed to lower‐quality parenting due to pandemic‐related stress and strain. The potential for intergenerational impacts is also identified in a study of almost 300 mothers using surveys and time‐use diaries (Coyle et al., 2023). As seen across other studies in this Special Issue, mothers reported an increase in work‐family conflict during the pandemic as compared to before the pandemic, and married mothers had more stress, worked more hours, but also had greater life satisfaction than unmarried mothers.…”

“…Caring for children and household chores are also often enacted by women, and healthy older family members were no longer able to support women in these responsibilities. Increased eldercare demands and decreased childcare support set the stage for empirical findings in this Special Issue that women experienced increased work versus family role conflict and burdens of household and childcare responsibilities (e.g., Bernhardt et al., 2022; Coyle et al., 2023; Dinella et al., 2023; Lee et al., 2022).…”