Covid-19 has ‘exacerbated gender inequities in housework and childcare’

Covid-19 has ‘exacerbated gender inequities’ in housework, childcare and mental health for women, according to a new study.  

University College London (UCL) experts surveyed 12,278 men and 17,298 women in the UK in April and May last year during the first lockdown. 

On average, women did nearly twice the amount of housework and childcare as men over the two months. 

Men did on average 43.1 hours of housework and childcare combined per week, while women did 72.8 hours combined – around 1.7 times as much. 

Women who spent long hours on housework and childcare were more likely to report increased levels of psychological distress. 

Mothers were more likely than fathers to reduce their working hours or change employment schedules to care for children, the researchers also found.  

During the height of the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK, women spent more time on unpaid housework and childcare than men, were more likely to reduce working hours, and reported higher levels of psychological distress (file image) 

‘There are continued gender inequalities in divisions of unpaid care work,’ say the study authors Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn, both from UCL, in their paper.

‘Juggling home working with homeschooling and childcare as well as extra housework is likely to lead to poor mental health for people with families, particularly for lone mothers.

‘School closures and homeworking during the Covid-19 crisis have resulted in an immediate increase in unpaid care work, which draws new attention to gender inequality in divisions of…