Abstract
AbstractHouseholds in Canada and Australia have exhibited similar trends in the gendered allocation of additional child care responsibilities resulting from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we employ survey data to analyze the extent to which policy interventions related to COVID-19 have exacerbated gender disparities in child care obligations. We find that existing asymmetrical distributions of child care obligations in Canada and Australia have been amplified during the pandemic, resulting in a disproportionate burden on women. During the pandemic we also find that, in households with children, women tend to report experiencing poorer mental health than men.
Highlights
Households in Canada and Australia have exhibited similar trends in the gendered allocation of additional child care responsibilities resulting from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
We demonstrate how certain policy interventions intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have compounded existing gender disparities around child care obligations
Our analysis demonstrates how certain policy interventions related to COVID-19 exacerbated the preexisting asymmetrical division of household labor between men and women (Dinh, Strazdins, and Welsh 2017; Orloff 2002)
Summary
Households in Canada and Australia have exhibited similar trends in the gendered allocation of additional child care responsibilities resulting from policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ survey data to analyze the extent to which policy interventions related to COVID-19 have exacerbated gender disparities in child care obligations. We employed survey data in Canadian and Australian households with children under the age of 15 to compare the average differences between men and women in terms of hours per week spent on child care prior to and during the pandemic. We found that in Canada, the average woman with children at home reported spending nearly 50 more hours per week on child care during the pandemic than the average man. Women in Australian households with children reported spending approximately 43 more hours per week on child care during the pandemic than men. Our findings support assertions that women with child care obligations have seen a dramatic and disproportionate increase in invisible labor as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
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