Cracking Under Pressure? Gender Role Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment in Times of COVID-19 in Germany

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of Covid-19 and related daycare and school closures during lockdowns on gender role attitudes toward maternal employment in Germany. Using data from 2008 through 2021, we study gender role attitudes of women and men with dependent children. First-difference and difference-in-differences estimates show that fathers' egalitarian attitudes toward maternal employment dropped substantially one year after the outbreak of the pandemic. This drop is observed for men in West Germany, who showed a steady progression toward more egalitarian attitudes in the pre-pandemic period. Attitudes by women are not affected. The drop in men’s attitudes is most pronounced for fathers of young children. These findings suggest that the pandemic not only affected the short-term allocation of housework and childcare, but also reverses previous changes in more egalitarian attitudes toward maternal employment in the short run.