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“In this together”? Gender inequality associated with home‐working couples during the first COVID lockdown

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  • Beáta Nagy
  • Réka Geambașu
  • Orsolya Gergely
  • Nikolett Somogyi

Abstract

The first lockdown, conferred upon us by the COVID‐19 outbreak in March 2020, created a unique, 3‐month‐long, laboratory‐like situation that made gender relations and women's work especially relevant for social research. Full‐time employed parents who switched to working from home were in a unique position to renegotiate the division of housework, childcare, or the management of school‐related tasks. This paper explores what happened to the gendered division of unpaid work and what factors explain the (failed) renegotiation between full‐time working parents. To explore this issue, we interviewed 52 Hungarian‐speaking mothers in two countries, Hungary and Romania, who were living in heterosexual dual‐earner families with children under the age of 14, and who were working full‐time. Results show that, despite the unusual situation, the usual pattern of the division of unpaid work was sustained by most parents. Even though they were unhappy and sometimes overwhelmed with their workload, most mothers did not mind the division of care duties. Research findings deliver evidence that mothers' lack of willingness and ability to renegotiate the division of unpaid labor in the household was determined both from “inside” and “outside” households. The gendered nature of care work and intensive parenting and mothers' position in the labor market, including the flexibility of their employment, are two sets of mutually interwoven factors that contributed to women's lack of willingness to challenge the unequal division of reproductive work.

Suggested Citation

  • Beáta Nagy & Réka Geambașu & Orsolya Gergely & Nikolett Somogyi, 2023. "“In this together”? Gender inequality associated with home‐working couples during the first COVID lockdown," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 1059-1079, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:1059-1079
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12971
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2023. "Who is doing the chores and childcare in dual-earner couples during the COVID-19 era of working from home?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 519-565, June.
    2. Sevgi Çoban, 2022. "Gender and telework: Work and family experiences of teleworking professional, middle‐class, married women with children during the Covid‐19 pandemic in Turkey," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 241-255, January.
    3. Heejung Chung, 2020. "Gender, Flexibility Stigma and the Perceived Negative Consequences of Flexible Working in the UK," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 521-545, September.
    4. Anna Kurowska, 2020. "Gendered Effects of Home-Based Work on Parents’ Capability to Balance Work with Non-work: Two Countries with Different Models of Division of Labour Compared," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 405-425, September.
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