The impact of lockdown on the division of labor in households

Research shows that the current COVID-19 epidemic can have important implications for gender equality in households, both during and after lockdown. On the one hand, closures of schools and daycare have a considerable impact, particularly on working mothers. On the other hand, flexible working arrangements adopted during lockdown can have an impact on social norms. Many fathers also find themselves working at home, while being able to take part of the responsibility for childcare. According to some researchers, this could transform social norms towards a greater balance in the division of domestic work and childcare.

The Chair conducted a survey to study the impact of lockdown on the division of labor within households. The research project aims to study whether the lockdown has allowed a greater gender equality or, on the contrary, a return to greater specialization of the division of labor in housework and childcare.

To conduct this research, we collected data early May through the survey agency IPSOS. Preliminary descriptive results of the survey are available in this report by IPSOS (FR, PDF, 3,62mo).