He’s Working from Home and I’m at Home Trying to Work: Experiences of Childcare and the Work–Family Balance Among Mothers During COVID-19

Abstract

This article captures mothers’ experiences of the work–family balance and division of household labor during the initial COVID-19 lockdown. Interviews were conducted with twenty-five academics and twenty professionals in other fields. Mothers who split childcare with their partners had a more positive experience of the work–family balance during lockdown, compared with mothers who did the majority of the childcare. The present study adds a new wrinkle into the literature on flexibility and work–family balance: the perception of flexibility and its impact on the division of labor. Academic mothers, who had always had highly “flexible” jobs, were less likely to split childcare with their partners pre-pandemic and thus less likely to have positive experiences of work–family balance during the Spring 2020 lockdown. I argue that perceived flexibility of a partner’s job affected allocation of childcare during the initial stages of the pandemic, a moment that wreaked significant harm on women’s careers.

The work-family interface and the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review

“…Hence, due to the COVID-19-related measures, working mothers perceived higher work-family conflict during the COVID-19 health crisis compared to before ( Andrade and Fernandes, 2021 ; Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ; Čikić and Rajačić, 2021 ; Çoban, 2021 ; Verweij et al, 2021 ). Tangibly for working mothers, the role strain ( Lemos et al, 2020 ; Andrade and Fernandes, 2021 ; Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ; Čikić and Rajačić, 2021 ; Martucci, 2021 ), as well as the augmented paid and unpaid workload ( Lemos et al, 2020 ; Andrade and Fernandes, 2021 ) increased work-family conflict ( Andrade and Fernandes, 2021 ; Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ). Furthermore, this combination of variables also led to higher parental dissatisfaction ( Lemos et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Mothers also noted that fathers were more involved in unpaid work regarding childcare, even though they adopted the “assistant” role or had poor performance ( Lemos et al, 2020 ; Çoban, 2021 ). Again, this cluster pushed mothers and fathers to perform traditional gendered roles ( Çoban, 2021 ; Martucci, 2021 ). Interestingly, even though supportive coparenting blocked the father’s work-to-family conflict from exacerbating their depressive symptoms, negative coparenting moderated the relationship between mothers’ work-family conflict (in both directions) on fathers’ depressive symptoms ( Zou et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Mothers’ work-to-family conflict ( Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ) was coupled with feelings of guilt for not enjoying more time with their children. These feelings of guilt were also coupled with family-to-work conflict for not complying with job expectations ( Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ; Martucci, 2021 ). As a result, working mothers were preoccupied that the demands of their mothers’ role could have a turnaround in their career regarding workload ( Aplin-Houtz et al, 2021 ) and job position ( Çoban, 2021 ).…”

“…For instance, the novelty of the flexible job arrangement, which typifies remote work, allowed Brazilian working women to discover higher levels of work-family balance ( Lemos et al, 2020 ). Nevertheless, for US-born mothers ( Martucci, 2021 ), job flexibility could have a perverted effect on work-family balance. Job flexibility was only linked to better work-family balance for mothers whose jobs had never before featured flexibility ( Martucci, 2021 ).…”

“…Nevertheless, for US-born mothers ( Martucci, 2021 ), job flexibility could have a perverted effect on work-family balance. Job flexibility was only linked to better work-family balance for mothers whose jobs had never before featured flexibility ( Martucci, 2021 ). If that were not the case, both men and women would push mothers to assume the role of looking for children ( Martucci, 2021 ).…”