IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v28y2021is2p515-534.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A gendered pandemic: Childcare, homeschooling, and parents' employment during COVID‐19

Author

Listed:
  • Richard J. Petts
  • Daniel L. Carlson
  • Joanna R. Pepin

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has dramatically affected employment, particularly for mothers. Many believe that the loss of childcare and homeschooling requirements are key contributors to this trend, but previous work has been unable to test these hypotheses due to data limitations. This study uses novel data from 989 partnered, US parents to empirically examine whether the loss of childcare and new homeschooling demands are associated with employment outcomes early in the pandemic. We also consider whether the division of childcare prior to the pandemic is associated with parents' employment. For parents with young children, the loss of full‐time childcare was associated with an increased risk of unemployment for mothers but not fathers. Yet, father involvement in childcare substantially buffered against negative employment outcomes for mothers of young children. For parents with school‐age children, participation in homeschooling was associated with adverse employment outcomes for mothers but not fathers. Overall, this study provides empirical support for the current discourse on gender differences in employment during the pandemic and also highlights the role fathers can play in buffering against reduced labor force participation among mothers.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard J. Petts & Daniel L. Carlson & Joanna R. Pepin, 2021. "A gendered pandemic: Childcare, homeschooling, and parents' employment during COVID‐19," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 515-534, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:s2:p:515-534
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12614
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12614
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12614?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Gary S, 1985. "Human Capital, Effort, and the Sexual Division of Labor," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 33-58, January.
    2. Elizabeth A. Kensinger & Rachel J. Garoff-Eaton & Daniel L. Schacter, 2007. "Effects of Emotion on Memory Specificity in Young and Older Adults," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 62(4), pages 208-215.
    3. Kevin E. Levay & Jeremy Freese & James N. Druckman, 2016. "The Demographic and Political Composition of Mechanical Turk Samples," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440166, March.
    4. Rebecca Glauber, 2018. "Trends in the Motherhood Wage Penalty and Fatherhood Wage Premium for Low, Middle, and High Earners," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1663-1680, October.
    5. Frances Goldscheider & Eva Bernhardt & Trude Lappegård, 2015. "The Gender Revolution: A Framework for Understanding Changing Family and Demographic Behavior," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(2), pages 207-239, June.
    6. Paul T E Cusack, 2020. "On Pain," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 31(3), pages 24253-24254, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nurgun Kul Parlak & Ayse Nur Ciftci, 2022. "Pandeminin Kayit Disi Istihdami Dislama Etkisi: Turkiye’de Formel-Enformel Emek Piyasalarindaki Ayrisma," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(82), pages 93-135, June.
    2. Anna Kurowska & Agnieszka Kasperska, 2024. "Work from Home and Perceptions of Career Prospects of Employees with Children," Working Papers 2024-08, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    3. Kwon, Sarah Jiyoon, 2023. "Grandparents and Parental Labor Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic," OSF Preprints jxyvn_v1, Center for Open Science.
    4. Claudia Senik & Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’Ambrosio & Anthony Lepinteur & Carsten Schröder, 2024. "Teleworking and life satisfaction during COVID-19: the importance of family structure," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-24, March.
    5. Daniel L. Carlson & Skye McPherson & Richard J. Petts, 2024. "Remote Work, Gender Ideologies, and Fathers’ Participation in Childcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, March.
    6. Braden Leap & Kimberly Kelly & Marybeth C. Stalp, 2022. "Choreographing social reproduction: Making personal protective equipment and gender during a neoliberal pandemic," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 758-777, May.
    7. McGinnity, Frances & Russell, Helen & Alamir, Anousheh, 2024. "The equality impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Irish labour market," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number JR6.
    8. Geoffrey M. Ducanes & Vincent Jerald R. Ramos, 2023. "COVID-19 Lockdowns and Female Employment: Evidence from the Philippines," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 883-899, December.
    9. Sarah Jiyoon Kwon, 2024. "Grandparents and parental labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 935-964, September.
    10. Jennifer C. Davis & Eric Ping Hung Li & Mary Stewart Butterfield & Gino A. DiLabio & Nithi Santhagunam & Barbara Marcolin, 2022. "Are we failing female and racialized academics? A Canadian national survey examining the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on tenure and tenure‐track faculty," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 703-722, May.
    11. Kwon, Sarah Jiyoon, 2023. "Grandparents and Parental Labor Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic," OSF Preprints jxyvn, Center for Open Science.
    12. Stefan Jestl & Maryna Tverdostup, 2024. "The Path Through: Early COVID-19 Job Loss and Labour Market Trajectories in Austria," wiiw Working Papers 246, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    13. Ashley B. LeBaron-Black & Jeremy B. Yorgason & Melissa A. Curran & Matthew T. Saxey & Rachel M. Okamoto, 2022. "The ABC-X’s of Stress among U.S. Emerging Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Relationship Quality, Financial Distress, and Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-16, October.
    14. Andrew Taeho Kim & Matt Erickson & Yurong Zhang & ChangHwan Kim, 2022. "Who is the “She” in the Pandemic “She-Cession”? Variation in COVID-19 Labor Market Outcomes by Gender and Family Status," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(3), pages 1325-1358, June.
    15. Daniel L. Carlson & Richard J. Petts, 2022. "US Parents’ Domestic Labor During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2393-2418, December.
    16. Kozhaya, Mireille, 2022. "The double burden: The impact of school closures on labor force participation of mothers," Ruhr Economic Papers 956, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    17. Stefan Jestl & Branimir Jovanović & Ambre Maucorps & Leon Podkaminer & Maryna Tverdostup, 2024. "Monthly Report No. 3/2024," wiiw Monthly Reports 2024-03, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kelly Musick & Pilar Gonalons‐Pons & Christine R. Schwartz, 2022. "Change and Variation in U.S. Couples’ Earnings Equality Following Parenthood," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 413-443, June.
    2. Jorge M. Agüero & Mindy Marks & Neha Raykar, 2020. "Economic Development and the Motherhood Wage Penalty," Working papers 2020-06, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    3. repec:ers:journl:v:xxiv:y:2021:i:4b:p:883-900 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz & Maria Stanfors, 2021. "The Great Convergence: Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(1), pages 181-217, March.
    5. Daniel L. Carlson & Richard J. Petts, 2022. "US Parents’ Domestic Labor During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(6), pages 2393-2418, December.
    6. Sunha Myong & JungJae Park & Junjian Yi, 2021. "Social Norms and Fertility," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(5), pages 2429-2466.
    7. Muzhi Zhou & Man-Yee Kan, 2019. "A new family equilibrium? Changing dynamics between the gender division of labor and fertility in Great Britain, 1991–2017," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(50), pages 1455-1500.
    8. Eunhye Kwak, 2022. "The emergence of the motherhood premium: recent trends in the motherhood wage gap across the wage distribution," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1323-1343, December.
    9. Zheng Mu & Yu Xie, 2016. "'Motherhood penalty' and 'fatherhood premium'? Fertility effects on parents in China," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(47), pages 1373-1410.
    10. Stephen Benard & Shelley Correll & In Paik, 2007. "Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?," Natural Field Experiments 00227, The Field Experiments Website.
    11. Henrekson, Magnus & Dreber, Anna, 2004. "Female Career Success: Institutions, Path Dependence and Psychology," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 574, Stockholm School of Economics, revised 25 Jan 2007.
    12. Manuel Barneo-Alcántara & Manuel Díaz-Pérez & Marta Gómez-Galán & José Pérez-Alonso & Ángel-Jesús Callejón-Ferre, 2020. "Musculoskeletal Risks of Farmers in the Olive Grove (Jaén-Spain)," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-38, October.
    13. Castagnetti, Carolina & Rosti, Luisa, 2010. "Gender stereotyping and wage discrimination among Italian graduates," MPRA Paper 26685, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Gigi Foster & Leslie S. Stratton, 2018. "Do significant labor market events change who does the chores? Paid work, housework, and power in mixed-gender Australian households," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 483-519, April.
    15. Emanuela Struffolino & Michele Raitano, 2020. "Early-Career Complexity Before and After Labour-Market Deregulation in Italy: Heterogeneity by Gender and Socio-economic Status Across Cohorts," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 231-257, August.
    16. Artmann, Elisabeth & Oosterbeek, Hessel & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2022. "Household specialization and the child penalty in the Netherlands," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    17. Samuel Rhodes, 2024. "Narrow Margins and Misinformation: The Impact of Sharing Fake News in Close Contests," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, October.
    18. Hisakatsu Ito & Hiroshi Tsuneki & Toshiyasu Sasaoka & Naoki Toyooka & Mitsuhiro Matsuo & Mitsuaki Yamazaki, 2022. "Suvorexant and mirtazapine improve chronic pain-related changes in parameters of sleep and voluntary physical performance in mice with sciatic nerve ligation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, February.
    19. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Nicolás Salamanca & Anna Zhu, 2019. "Parenting style as an investment in human development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1315-1352, October.
    20. Emma Neuman, 2018. "Source country culture and labor market assimilation of immigrant women in Sweden: evidence from longitudinal data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 585-627, September.
    21. Gauri, Dinesh Kumar & Trivedi, Minakshi & Grewal, Dhruv, 2008. "Understanding the Determinants of Retail Strategy: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 256-267.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:s2:p:515-534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.