How are mothers and fathers balancing work and family under lockdown?

Andrew, Alison; Cattan, Sarah; Dias, Mónica Costa; Farquharson, Christine; Kraftman, Lucy; Krutikova, Sonya; Phimister, Angus; Sevilla, Almudena

doi:10.1920/bn.ifs.2020.bn0290

Cited by 38 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Evidence from the United States (Lofton et al, 2021;Landivar et al, 2020) shows that at the start of the pandemic fathers saw their employment fall less than women and childless men and the recovery of jobs has been more pronounced for men and childless women than for mothers. Similar results have been reported for the UK (Andrew et al, 2020) and Canada (Fuller & Qian, 2021). We will test if mothers were more likely to lose their jobs or to register for short-time work (thus to record income losses) than women as part of childless couples or men also in Austria.…”

Section: Gender Perspectivesupporting

confidence: 62%

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

Steiber¹,

Siegert²,

Vogtenhuber³

2021

Preprint

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Objective: This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation of parents and in turn on the subjective financial well-being of families with children in Austria. Background: The pandemic had strong repercussions on the Austrian labour market. The short-time work (STW) programme covered a third of employees in the first half of 2020 and helped to maintain employment levels. We provide evidence on how an unprecedented labour market crisis of this sort and in particular the exceptionally wide use of STW had affected the (gendered) employment situation of parents and the financial well-being of different types of families. Method: The study draws on representative panel survey data that cover 905 families with underage children. The data include information on the employment situation and financial well-being of single and cohabiting parents before the onset of the crisis, three months and ten months after its onset. Results: In contrast to other countries, mothers were not more strongly affected by the labour market crisis of 2020 than childless women or fathers. About a third of couples with underage children experienced income losses. Despite the wide use of STW and government support to families, the share of families in financial difficulties has substantially increased, especially among those with many children and single parents, many of who were at risk of poverty already before the crisis. Conclusion: Substantial shares of dual-earner families that had low poverty risks before the crisis were in financial difficulties in 2020. Potential spill-over effects of financial shocks on children are discussed.

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Section: Gender Perspectivesupporting

confidence: 62%

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

Steiber¹,

Siegert²,

Vogtenhuber³

2021

Preprint

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“…Despite recent policy reforms that have resulted in some increase in maternal full-time work and an increase in fathers taking parental leave, equally shared care work among both partners is still the exception, especially in West Germany (Hank and Steinbach, 2020;Kreyenfeld et al, 2020). The same is observed in the United Kingdom, with mothers spending less time in paid work but more time on household responsibilities (mothers combined paid work with other activities-mostly childcare-47% of their time, compared with 30% for fathers, a 2:1 ratio) (Andrew et al, 2020). Similar results are reported in Spain, with mothers spending on average 28 h a week on childcare compared with 19 h for fathers (Farré et al, 2020) see also (Czymara et al, 2021) for further discussion).…”

Section: Domestic Division Of Labormentioning

confidence: 94%

Life With Corona: Increased Gender Differences in Aggression and Depression Symptoms Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Burden in Germany

et al. 2021

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Gender differences (GD) in mental health have come under renewed scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic. While rapidly emerging evidence indicates a deterioration of mental health in general, it remains unknown whether the pandemic will have an impact on GD in mental health. To this end, we investigate the association of the pandemic and its countermeasures affecting everyday life, labor, and households with changes in GD in aggression, anxiety, depression, and the somatic symptom burden. We analyze cross-sectional data from 10,979 individuals who live in Germany and who responded to the online survey “Life with Corona” between October 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. We estimate interaction effects from generalized linear models. The analyses reveal no pre-existing GD in aggression but exposure to COVID-19 and COVID-19 countermeasures is associated with sharper increases in aggression in men than in women. GD in anxiety decreased among participants with children in the household (with men becoming more anxious). We also observe pre-existing and increasing GD with regards to the severity of depression, with women presenting a larger increase in symptoms during the hard lockdown or with increasing stringency. In contrast to anxiety, GD in depression increased among participants who lived without children (women > men), but decreased for individuals who lived with children; here, men converged to the levels of depression presented by women. Finally, GD in somatic symptoms decreased during the hard lockdown (but not with higher stringency), with men showing a sharper increase in symptoms, especially when they lived with children or alone. Taken together, the findings indicate an increase in GD in mental health as the pandemic unfolded in Germany, with rising female vulnerability to depression and increasing male aggression. The combination of these two trends further suggests a worrying mental health situation for singles and families. Our results have important policy implications for the German health system and public health policy. This public health challenge requires addressing the rising burden of pandemic-related mental health challenges and the distribution of this burden between women and men, within families and for individuals who live alone.

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“…70 Adams-Prassl et al, 2020a, 608. 71 Andrew et al, 2020aand 2020bBlundell et al, 2020. 72 Adams-Prassl et al, 2020aand 2020b.…”

Section: Economic Policyunclassified

“…71 Andrew et al, 2020aand 2020bBlundell et al, 2020. 72 Adams-Prassl et al, 2020aand 2020b. 73 Brewer et al, 2020 For context, see Oswald and Powdthavee (2020).…”

Section: Economic Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Far from Well: The UK since COVID‐19, and Learning to Follow the Science(s)*

O’Donnell

Begg

2020

Fiscal Studies

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This paper offers a five‐part framework for assessing why the United Kingdom has coped poorly compared with peer countries with the medical, social and economic challenges brought by the COVID‐19 pandemic – a surprising failure, given the strength of its scientific community and the internationally attested quality of its civil service. The paper also offers a proposal for how to shape an independent inquiry, one promised by the UK Prime Minister, of the kind that has the primary motivation to better prepare the country for future crises. The paper begins by providing various metrics that set out how the UK has, as of late 2020, been particularly adversely affected by the pandemic. It then details the five‐part framework, which is presented as a series of propositions with initial supporting evidence that require more thorough investigation, supported by a fuller record of evidence. First, we suggest that there have been problems as to how evidence about the pandemic and its anticipated effects was collected, processed and circulated, weakening policymakers’ ability to evaluate the risk calculus. Second, particular structures and processes of government decision‐making appear to have been inadequate and ill‐suited to the multidimensional challenges brought by the pandemic. Third, the role of political leadership and decision‐making in the public health and broader policy responses needs thorough evaluation. Fourth, we assess some aspects of economic policymaking during the pandemic. Fifth, features of the UK's institutional make‐up may have been a driver of the suboptimal outcomes. Overall, we argue that UK policymakers may have over‐relied on the medical sciences at the expense of other (social) scientific evidence.

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How are mothers and fathers balancing work and family under lockdown?

Cited by 38 publications

References 0 publications

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment situation and financial well-being of families with children in Austria: Evidence from the first ten months of the crisis

Life With Corona: Increased Gender Differences in Aggression and Depression Symptoms Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Burden in Germany

Far from Well: The UK since COVID‐19, and Learning to Follow the Science(s)*

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