Work and Family Disadvantage: Determinants of Gender Gaps in Paid Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Mertehikian Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9433736 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectiveThis 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.BackgroundTelecommuting 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.MethodData 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.ResultsBefore 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.ConclusionIn 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.
| S-EPMC8661776 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Many employers introduced or expanded working from home (WFH) in response to increasing infection rates after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether WFH enhances or depletes parents' resources for their children is still an open question. Drawing on contextual models of parenting and demands-resources approaches, we examine how WFH during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic was linked to changes in responsive and harsh parenting, particularly in light of pandemic-related increases in work-to-family conflicts (WFC). We further investigate gender differences in these associations. Our analyses draw on a sample of working parents from a large-scale German family survey conducted in 2019 and a COVID-19 follow-up from 2020. Results from first difference regression models in combination with Heckman's sample selection method revealed strongly gendered patterns of changes in parenting. Specifically, responsive parenting decreased and harsh parenting increased only among mothers who did not work from home. In addition, WFH buffered increased spillovers from WFC on declines in responsive parenting among mothers. In contrast, fathers' parenting remained largely unaffected by pandemic-related changes in their work situation. We conclude that WFH can be a resource gain because it seems to have relieved some pandemic-related parenting strain for mothers. Yet as a consequence, it may have reinforced gendered patterns of childcare. We discuss implications for policymakers and support services for families. We also place a special emphasis on those who are not able to work from home because this seems to have increased the risk that high work demands impaired their parenting during the early stages of the pandemic.
| S-EPMC9349714 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The increasing mental health inequalities between women and men following the COVID-19 crisis represent a major public health concern. Public health measures to mitigate the pandemic could severely impact populations with high prevalence of mental health problems such as graduate students. We aimed to document the gendered experience of the lockdown and its association with depressive symptoms among graduate students in Quebec. We contrast two hypotheses: whether inequalities in depressive symptoms between women and men could be linked to their differential exposure or vulnerability to work, family and study conditions, with the mediating role of work-to-family interference (WIF) and family-to-work interference (FIW). This observational study used path analysis to test our hypotheses using a cross-sectional data collected from 1,790 graduate students from three universities in Quebec. The exposure hypothesis received more support. Women reported more stress regarding new teaching methods, which was associated directly with more depressive symptoms, and indirectly through WIF. Women were more worried about COVID-19, which was associated with more depressive symptoms, and indirectly through WIF and FIW. However, women reported less FIW and more emotional support, both respectively associated with less depressive symptoms. The policy measures taken after the COVID-19 were not gender-neutral. This study demonstrates the importance of taking the potentially gendered effects of policies into consideration, and points to mitigating actions that can forestall the exacerbation of gendered inequalities in mental health.
| S-EPMC8461224 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceThe COVID-19 pandemic has placed increased strain on health care workers and disrupted childcare and schooling arrangements in unprecedented ways. As substantial gender inequalities existed in medicine before the pandemic, physician mothers may be at particular risk for adverse professional and psychological consequences.ObjectiveTo assess gender differences in work-family factors and mental health among physician parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design, setting, and participantsThis prospective cohort study included 276 US physicians enrolled in the Intern Health Study since their first year of residency training. Physicians who had participated in the primary study as interns during the 2007 to 2008 and 2008 to 2009 academic years and opted into a secondary longitudinal follow-up study were invited to complete an online survey in August 2018 and August 2020.ExposuresWork-family experience included 3 single-item questions and the Work and Family Conflict Scale, and mental health symptoms included the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale.Main outcomes and measuresThe primary outcomes were work-to-family and family-to-work conflict and depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms during August 2020. Depressive symptoms between 2018 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) were compared by gender.ResultsAmong 215 physician parents who completed the August 2020 survey, 114 (53.0%) were female and the weighted mean (SD) age was 40.1 (3.57) years. Among physician parents, women were more likely to be responsible for childcare or schooling (24.6% [95% CI, 19.0%-30.2%] vs 0.8% [95% CI, 0.01%-2.1%]; P < .001) and household tasks (31.4% [95% CI, 25.4%-37.4%] vs 7.2% [95% CI, 3.5%-10.9%]; P < .001) during the pandemic compared with men. Women were also more likely than men to work primarily from home (40.9% [95% CI, 35.1%-46.8%] vs 22.0% [95% CI, 17.2%-26.8%]; P < .001) and reduce their work hours (19.4% [95% CI, 14.7%-24.1%] vs 9.4% [95% CI, 6.0%-12.8%]; P = .007). Women experienced greater work-to-family conflict (β = 2.79; 95% CI, 1.00 to 4.59; P = .03), family-to-work conflict (β = 3.09; 95% CI, 1.18-4.99; P = .02), and depressive (β = 1.76; 95% CI, 0.56-2.95; P = .046) and anxiety (β = 2.87; 95% CI, 1.49-4.26; P < .001) symptoms compared with men. We observed a difference between women and men in depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic (mean [SD] PHQ-9 score: 5.05 [6.64] vs 3.52 [5.75]; P = .009) that was not present before the pandemic (mean [SD] PHQ-9 score: 3.69 [5.26] vs 3.60 [6.30]; P = .86).Conclusions and relevanceThis study found significant gender disparities in work and family experiences and mental health symptoms among physician parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may translate to increased risk for suicide, medical errors, and lower quality of patient care for physician mothers. Institutional and public policy solutions are needed to mitigate the potential adverse consequences for women's careers and well-being.
| S-EPMC8590168 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This paper investigates the dynamics and drivers of gender gaps in employment rates, wages, and work hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on Estonian Labor Force Survey data for 2009-2020. We document that the pandemic has, if anything, reduced gender inequality in all three domains. The evolution of inequalities revealed cyclical pattern mirroring infection rate, with upswings largely driven by parenthood and gender segregation into industries. The results suggest that labor market penalties for women with young children and women employed in affected sectors may last longer than the pandemic, threatening to widen gender inequality in a long run.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41294-022-00198-z.
| S-EPMC9366806 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In an unprecedented fashion, COVID-19 has impacted the work-family interface since March 2020. As one of the COVID-19 pandemic consequences, remote work became widely adopted. Furthermore, it is expected that other pandemics will occur in the future. Hence, this context represents a chance to gain deeper insight into telecommuters' work and family spheres. Following PRISMA guidelines, the present narrative review aims to synthesise the COVID-19 impact on the work-family interface. Out of 121 screened references, 32 articles that measure at least one of the following variables-work-family conflict (25), work-family enrichment (3), work-family balance (8), and boundary management (21) were included. A thematic analysis using NVIVO12 was conducted, from which eight topics emerged: "paid workload, unpaid workload, and gender"; "well-being and gender"; "job resources, job demands, and gender"; "couples and gender"; "parenting and gender"; "occurrence of work-family enrichment with work-family conflict and gender"; "enforced blurred boundaries, its management, and gender"; "boundary management impact on work-family conflict, work-family enrichment, and work-family balance." Overall, studies point out that COVID-19 had a complex effect on both work-family conflict and work-family balance, making it difficult to state whether these variables were mitigated or augmented. Findings demonstrated that COVID-19 produced little changes in work-family enrichment. As for the COVID-19 impact on work-family boundary management, individuals had to create new tactics to manage them due to the absence of boundaries between both systems. Besides, due to traditional gendered roles, the COVID-19 health crisis seems to have brought additional hurdles to couples and women.Systematic review registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021278254], identifier [CRD42021278254].
| S-EPMC9387637 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveMuch research on the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the unequal impact on men and women in many countries but empirical evidence on later stages of the pandemic remains limited. The objective of this paper is to study differences between men and women in work location, the relative division of childcare, and perceived work-life balance across and throughout different phases of the pandemic using six waves of probability-based survey data collected in the Netherlands between April 2020 and April 2022 (including retrospective pre-pandemic measures).MethodThe study used descriptive methods (longitudinal crosstabulations) and multivariate modelling (cross-sectional multinomial logits, with and without moderators) in a repeated cross-sectional design.ResultsResults suggest the pandemic is associated with several phase-specific differences between men and women in where they worked and their relative division of childcare in the Netherlands. Men were less likely than women to work fully from home at the start of each lockdown and to work on location during the first lockdown. Amongst parents, fathers increased their share of childcare throughout the first phase of the pandemic, and this increase remains visible at the end of the pandemic. Women in the Netherlands did not experience worse work-life balance than men throughout the pandemic, but mothers did experience worse work-life balance than fathers at various points during the pandemic.DiscussionOur results suggest varying long-term implications for gender inequality in society. Gender differences in work location raise concerns about the possible longer-term impact on gender inequalities in career development. Our findings on childcare suggest that many households have experienced different divisions of childcare at different stages of the pandemic, with some potential for longer-term change.ConclusionInequalities between men and women in work, childcare, and wellbeing have neither been alleviated by nor unilaterally worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC11198899 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected everyone's daily life in one way or another, requiring a re-negotiation of existing strategies for work-life integration, not only for individuals but also within families and partnerships. To contribute to existing knowledge on work-life integration during COVID-19 in Germany, we look at gender and parenthood differences in the experiences of work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work (FWC) conflicts. By accounting for employees' previous conflict experiences, we were able to reveal the extent to which the current conditions contributed to differences in these conflicts. Moreover, we explored the relevance of demands and resources in the family and work spheres as a way to explain different levels of WFC and FWC across gender and parenthood. Our analyses are based on a sample of 660 employees from a German linked employer-employee panel study and a COVID-19 follow-up survey conducted in late 2020. Results revealed that work-family conflict experiences before the pandemic play an important role in current conflict perceptions. Whereas WFC were more likely to be accentuated during the pandemic, prior FWC experiences may have helped to mitigate conflicts under these new conditions. Work-family conflicts in general have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this finding applied only to conflicts in the family-to-work direction. Although such increases were not limited to parents, they were particularly high in this group. Overall, gender differences in work-family conflicts were absent, but differences were found between mothers and fathers. The need to compensate for a lack of external childcare, as well as having to work from home, increased FWC, especially among fathers. This study suggests that FWC in particular became more important during the pandemic; however, parents were not the only ones who were disadvantaged when it came to work-life integration; childless individuals likewise struggled to balance the demands of work and private life.
| S-EPMC8767121 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundAccess to paid family and medical leave (PFML), including leave to care for a seriously ill loved one or recover from one's own serious illness, conveys health and economic benefits for workers and their families. However, without a national PFML policy, access to paid leave remains limited and unequal. Previous work documenting inequitable access by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity primarily focuses on parental leave, measures theoretical access to paid leave rather than actual leave uptake, and lacks an accounting for why workers of color and women may have less access to PFML. We extend this literature by looking at leave-taking for medical needs or caregiving among a high-risk population during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe draw on data from 2595 service-sector workers surveyed by the Shift Project in 2020 and 2021 to estimate inequities in leave uptake among workers who experienced qualifying events. We then estimate the relative importance of worker demographic characteristics, qualifying event types (medical vs. caregiving leave), proxies for access to state and employer PFML policies, job characteristics, and ultimately within-firm differences to these gaps.ResultsOverall, one-fifth of workers reported sufficient leave. Women are significantly more likely than men to report insufficient or no leave. Hispanic and Black workers are more likely to take insufficient or no leave, respectively, but these differences were attenuated when controlling for covariates.ConclusionsThe dearth of PFML laws leaves women and workers of color without access to leave that is paid and of sufficient duration when facing a qualifying event.
| S-EPMC10684272 | biostudies-literature
Project description:School and day care closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have increased caregiving responsibilities for working parents. As a result, many have changed their work hours to meet these growing demands. In this study, we use panel data from the US Current Population Survey to examine changes in mothers' and fathers' work hours from February through April 2020, the period of time prior to the widespread COVID-19 outbreak in the United States and through its first peak. Using person-level fixed effects models, we find that mothers with young children have reduced their work hours four to five times more than fathers. Consequently, the gender gap in work hours has grown by 20-50 per cent. These findings indicate yet another negative consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the challenges it poses to women's work hours and employment.
| S-EPMC7361447 | biostudies-literature