Abstract

The COVID-19 health crisis brought with it an increase in the workload on family members due to the restriction of services and the suspension of formal and informal care networks. Numerous studies have analyzed how home confinement have affected different gender gaps, including the gender gap related to chores within the home. This research aims to contribute to the existing literature from the perspective of gender geography by introducing the variable municipality size in the analyses. Our research in the case of Spain shows the COVID-19 health crisis to have had a significant impact on gender gaps, albeit to varying degrees. Women, especially those living in small municipalities, experienced a widening of the gap related to care and domestic workload during confinement. The study of the distribution of the more burdensome chores between genders shows an even more imbalanced scenario to the detriment of women. However, following the end of confinement, the situation improved. Although the imbalance against women remains, the gap with respect to the pre-pandemic situation has been reduced.

Highlights

  • Among the many gender gaps that reflect inequality between women and men in contemporary societies, the imbalance in the distribution of housework is prominent

  • We focus on the case of Spain and how the COVID-19 health crisis and confinement have affected gender inequality in the completion of household and workfamily chores, and whether this is different depending on the size of the municipality

  • The suspension of informal and formal care networks as well as the higher demand for care by the population at greatest risk meant that families, and in particular women, had to take on this responsibility (Alon et al 2020; Reichelt et al 2021) while managing difficult working conditions in the workplace

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Summary

Introduction

Among the many gender gaps that reflect inequality between women and men in contemporary societies, the imbalance in the distribution of housework is prominent. The traditional division of housework is usually identified as one of the explanatory variables of both horizontal and vertical female labor segmentations (Bick 2015; Blau et al.2012; Gutiérrez et al 2020; Reskin 1993; Simó-Noguera et al 2016; Torns and Recio 2012), which ends in the phenomena of glass ceiling and sticking floor. The former refers to the difficulties women face when they wish to increase their labor responsibilities and move up in the job hierarchy. Sci. 2022, 11, 37 mobility restrictions and confinement were restaurants and hotels, non-food and nonpharmaceutical retail, artistic and leisure services, as well as passenger transport services (Pérez et al 2021), all strongly feminized sectors

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