Dual-earner parent couples' work and care during COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Family Studies
• Labor Economics

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated lockdowns, forcing many working parents to balance paid work and family care at home.
• This situation presented unprecedented challenges for managing professional responsibilities alongside domestic and childcare duties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how working parents in dual-earner couples managed simultaneous paid work and family care during the COVID-19 lockdown.
• To analyze changes in time spent on paid and unpaid labor and assess satisfaction with work-family balance and partner's load sharing.

Main Methods:

• A subsample of 1536 parents from dual-earner couples was drawn from a national survey of 2722 Australian adults.
• Data were collected in May 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, focusing on time allocation and satisfaction with work-family dynamics.

Main Results:

• Paid work time decreased slightly, while unpaid work time significantly increased for parents during lockdown compared to pre-pandemic levels.
• Mothers experienced the most substantial time changes, but gender gaps in childcare narrowed due to a higher relative increase in fathers' childcare time.
• Parental dissatisfaction with work-family balance and partner's load sharing generally worsened, with some narrowing of gender differences in negative sentiment.

Conclusions:

• The COVID-19 lockdown significantly altered work and family labor distribution among Australian parents, with notable gender-specific impacts.
• While gender gaps in childcare time narrowed, overall work-family balance and satisfaction declined for many, affecting both mothers and fathers.
• The findings highlight the complex and often negative consequences of sudden shifts in work and care responsibilities on parental well-being.