Baby Steps: The Gender Division of Childcare During the Covid-19 Pandemic

31 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2020

See all articles by Almudena Sevilla

Almudena Sevilla

Queen Mary, University of London

Sarah Smith

University of Bristol; Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)

Abstract

The COVID19 pandemic has caused shocks to the demand for home childcare (with the closure of schools and nurseries) and the supply of home childcare (with many people not working). We collect real-time data on daily lives to document that UK families with young children have been doing the equivalent of a working week in childcare. Women have been doing the greater share, but overall, the gender childcare gap (the difference between the share of childcare done by women and the share done by men) for the additional, post-COVID19 hours is smaller than that for the allocation of pre-COVID19 childcare.However, the amount of additional childcare provided by men is very sensitive to their employment – the allocation has become more equal in households where men are working from home and where they have been furloughed/ lost their job. There are likely to be long-term implications from these changes – potentially negative for the careers of parents of young children; but also, more positively for some families, for sharing the burden of childcare more equally in the future.

Keywords: gender, childcare, COVID-19, Coronavirus

JEL Classification: J21, J22, J24, J33, J63

Suggested Citation

Sevilla, Almudena and Smith, Sarah, Baby Steps: The Gender Division of Childcare During the Covid-19 Pandemic. IZA Discussion Paper No. 13302, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3614250 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3614250

Almudena Sevilla (Contact Author)

Queen Mary, University of London ( email )

Mile End Road
London, E1 4NS
United Kingdom

Sarah Smith

University of Bristol ( email )

University of Bristol,
Senate House, Tyndall Avenue
Bristol, Avon BS8 ITH
United Kingdom

Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) ( email )

7 Ridgmount Street
London, WC1E 7AE
United Kingdom

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