Working from home and the division of childcare and house-work among dual-earner parents during the pandemic in the UK

This paper examines whether the expansion of homeworking led to a more equal division of domestic work during the pandemic. We use unique data of dual-earner heterosexual couples gathered during the first lockdown in the UK when workers were required to work from home by law. Results reveal that mothers were likely to be carrying out a larger share of domestic work both before and during the lockdown. When fathers worked from home, compared to those going into work, a more equitable division was found for cleaning and routine childcare. Furthermore, homeworking fathers were up to 3.5 times more likely to report that they increased the time they spent on childcare, during the lockdown compared to before. However, we also found evidence of homeworking mothers having increased their time spent on domestic work, and doing a larger share of routine childcare, compared to mothers going into work. Overall, the study shows that when homeworking was largely normalised and enforced, it enabled men to engage more in domestic work. Still, given that work cultures and gender norms have not significantly altered during this period, it did not sufficiently disrupt the pattern of flexible working enabling a traditional division of labour.