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The Division of Domestic Labor before and during the COVID‐19 Pandemic in Canada: Stagnation versus Shifts in Fathers’ Contributions
Author(s) -
Shafer Kevin,
Scheibling Casey,
Milkie Melissa A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
canadian review of sociology/revue canadienne de sociologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.414
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1755-618X
pISSN - 1755-6171
DOI - 10.1111/cars.12315
Subject(s) - declaration , pandemic , respondent , covid-19 , division of labour , demographic economics , perception , political science , psychology , sociology , economics , law , medicine , disease , virology , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pathology , neuroscience
Abstract The COVID‐19 pandemic created rapid, wide‐ranging, and significant disruptions to work and family life. Accordingly, these dramatic changes may have reshaped parents’ gendered division of labor in the short term. Using data from 1,234 Canadian parents in different‐sex relationships, we compare retrospective reports of perceived sharing in how housework and childcare tasks were split prior to the declaration of the pandemic to assessments of equality afterward. Further, we describe perceptions of changes in fathers’ engagement in these tasks overall, by respondent gender, and by employment arrangements before and during the pandemic. Results indicate small shifts toward a more equal division of labor in the early “lockdown” months, with increased participation in housework and childcare by fathers, supporting the needs exposure hypothesis. We conclude by discussing gender differences in parents’ reports and potential implications for longer term gender equality.