Impacts of the COVID‐19 Lockdown on Gender Inequalities in Time Spent on Paid and Unpaid Work in Singapore

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has affected gender inequalities in time spent on paid and unpaid work globally. Few studies outside of the Western context (i.e., countries in Australasia, Europe, or the Americas) have used longitudinal data to compare time use before and during the pandemic, focused on potential mechanisms through which the pandemic affects gender inequalities in time use, or examined the heterogeneous effects of socioeconomic status. We examine the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on gender inequalities in time spent on paid work, housework, and childcare in Singapore. Using a panel dataset of 290 married women interviewed before, during, and after the lockdown, and applying between‐within models, we find that gender gaps in housework hours increased during and persisted after the lockdown, even as the gender gap in paid work hours narrowed. The gap in childcare hours expanded among households with fewer resources but decreased among households with more resources. Mothers responded to loss of income and employment by increasing their childcare and housework time more than fathers, suggesting that “doing gender,” rather than time availability or material resources, provide the key mechanism explaining gendered changes in time use. Our results highlight that when a pandemic strikes, women, especially those in less‐resourced households, were put in a particularly vulnerable position compared to men.

Fertility and Family Dynamics in the Aftermath of the COVID‐19 Pandemic

“…Hence, the other half of articles in this volume focus on studies that introduce novel fertility forecasting methods (Wilde et al 2024 for the United States), explore early pandemic fertility ideation (Marteleto et al 2023in Brazil, Buber-Ennser et al 2023 in Austria, Hummer in the United States, Lazzari et al 2023 in Australia, andZimmermann et al 2023 in sub-Saharan Africa) and investigate changes in contraceptive usage (Yu et al 2024 in Kenya and Burkina Faso). One study focuses on other family dynamics, namely the gendered division of time spent on unpaid work in Singapore (Zang et al 2023).…”

“…One study in our volume addresses family dynamics beyond fertility. Zang et al study gendered work divisions during the pandemic and shows heightened gender gaps in housework, despite a narrowing gender gap in labormarket work (Zang, Lyttelton, and Guo 2023). It proposes a "doing gender" mechanism in contrast to time availability as the main mechanism behind this gender inequality.…”