Gender Differences in Telecommuting and Implications for Inequality at Home and Work

Abstract

The global pandemic has led to an unprecedented shift to remote work that will likely persist to some degree into the future. Telecommuting's impact on flexibility and work family conflict is a critical question for researchers and policy-makers. Our study addresses this question with data collected before and during the COVID-19 crisis: the 2003-2018 American Time Use Survey (ATUS, N = 19,179) and the April and May 2020 COVID Impact Survey (N = 784). Comparing mothers and fathers who work exclusively at the workplace, exclusively from home, and part-day from home, we describe differences in time spent on housework, childcare, and leisure; the nature of time worked at home; and the subjective experiences of telecommuting. In addition to a broad descriptive portrait, we take advantage of a quasi-experimental design in the ATUS leave supplements to examine time working at home among those who report ever telecommuting, providing estimates of telecommuting's effect on other uses of time that better approximate causal relationships than prior studies. We find that gender gaps in housework are larger for telecommuters, and, among telecommuters, larger on telecommuting days. Conversely, telecommuting may shrink the gender gap in childcare, particularly among couples with two full time earners, although childcare more frequently impinges upon mothers' work time. Survey data collected following the March COVID19 stay-at-home orders show that telecommuting mothers more frequently report feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression than telecommuting fathers. Early estimates of responses to the COVID19 pandemic offer insights into future implications of telecommuting for gender equality at work.

Leveling the Field: Gender Inequity in Academia During COVID-19

“…The COVID-19 outbreak and the closure of schools and childcare providers exacerbated the dual burden of academic and family life for those with young children. Although working from home is associated with more time spent on childcare by both parents, women reported doing more housework (Lyttelton, Zang, and Musick 2020). In our survey and interview data, academics with children described the challenge of trying to balance academic responsibilities and increased family demands, with many expressing that any semblance of work-life balance no longer existed.…”

“…Early evidence from journal submissions data, social media discussions (Kim and Patterson 2020), and accounts of women's lived experiences (Fazackerley 2020;Lyttelton, Zang, and Musick 2020) suggests both short-and long-term ramifications of the ongoing health crisis. Undoubtedly, the effects of the pandemic will be dissimilar across subfields, research methods, and disciplines.…”

Work from Home Before and After the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…Based on a Google Consumer Surveys question in early April and May, Brynjolfsson et al (2020) find that about half of employed respondents in May worked from home. Based on data from the COVID Impact Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in April and May, Lyttelton et al (2020) find that 55 percent of currently employed parents were telecommuting in April and May. In a survey of small business leaders, Bartik et al (2020a) find that 45 percent of firms report having any workers switch to working remotely.…”

Who on Earth Can Work from Home?

“…The second reason is related to the increased housework and childcare responsibilities resulting from the closing of schools and nurseries. The evidence shows that, in general, both women and men increased the amount of time allocated to childcare and housework, but the extra time was greater among women ( Adams-Prassl et al 2020b ; Del Boca et al 2020 ; Lyttelton, Zang, and Musick 2020 ; Sevilla and Smith 2020 ). These findings are consistent with existing studies documenting that women are more likely to miss work to shoulder caregiving responsibilities resulting from illness shocks to family members ( Heath, Mansuri, and Rijkers forthcoming ).…”