Telecommuting and gender inequalities in parents' paid and unpaid work before and during theCOVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective This study examines the relationship between telecommuting and gender inequalities in parents' time use at home and on the job before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Background Telecommuting is a potential strategy for addressing the competing demands of work and home and the gendered ways in which they play out. Limited evidence is mixed, however, on the implications of telecommuting for mothers' and fathers' time in paid and unpaid work. The massive increase in telecommuting due to COVID‐19 underscores the critical need to address this gap in the literature. Method Data from the 2003–2018 American Time Use Survey (N = 12,519) and the 2020 Current Population Survey (N = 83,676) were used to estimate the relationship between telecommuting and gender gaps in parents' time in paid and unpaid work before and during the pandemic. Matching and quasi‐experimental methods better approximate causal relationships than prior studies. Results Before the pandemic, telecommuting was associated with larger gender gaps in housework and work disruptions but smaller gender gaps in childcare, particularly among couples with two full‐time earners. During the pandemic, telecommuting mothers maintained paid work to a greater extent than mothers working on‐site, whereas fathers' work hours did not differ by work location. Conclusion In the context of weak institutional support for parenting, telecommuting may offer mothers a mechanism for maintaining work hours and reducing gender gaps in childcare, while exacerbating inequalities in housework and disruptions to paid work.

Telework and Worker Health and Well-Being: A Review and Recommendations for Research and Practice

“…Given that women are more likely to assume multiple roles when teleworking [ 19 ], gender is likely to act as both an antecedent and moderator in the relationship between telework and worker health and well-being. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, women spent more time teleworking overall, but also spent more of that time completing work in the presence of children and attending to housework than men [ 94 ]. Thus, as women participate in home-based telework, the beneficial impact of teleworking for work–life balance may be attenuated by way of reinforcing gender roles [ 95 ], with teleworking women reporting less work–life-balance than non-teleworking employees [ 96 ].…”

Gender and Racial Discrimination in Hiring Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from a Field Experiment of Accountants, 2018–2020

“…1 While initial unemployment—involuntary employment lapses from job loss—was widespread and particularly affected workers of color, sustained non-employment due to reductions in labor force participation were clearly gendered ( Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020 ; Collins et al, 2021 ). Women and mothers took on the brunt of caretaking responsibilities as childcare centers closed, schools paused instruction or turned to remote learning, and as family members fell ill ( Lyttelton et al, 2021 ; Power, 2020 ). As a result, about ten times more mothers than fathers were not working for family reasons during the pandemic's initial months (authors’ analysis of Flood et al, 2021 ).…”

The significance of occupations, family responsibilities, and gender for working from home: Lessons from COVID-19

“…WFH is thus all the more crucial for women during the pandemic. Recent research suggests that remote work helped mothers to maintain their level of paid work hours to a greater extent than mothers working on-site, who more often withdrew or reduced work time for family-related reasons [ 38 ]. Nevertheless, descriptive evidence suggests that it was not employees with families that were given the opportunity to work from home in the first place.…”

“…Nevertheless, descriptive evidence suggests that it was not employees with families that were given the opportunity to work from home in the first place. Rather, it seems that it was particularly highly educated workers, and workers with high incomes, who were able to take advantage of the opportunity to work from home [ 4 , 39 ], a continuation of the trend established before the pandemic [ 3 , 5 , 38 ].…”