ABSTRACT

This article investigates whether changes in women’s and men’s contributions to household income in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with changes in unpaid work. The current health crisis represents a unique opportunity to explore these topics, because the restrictive measures imposed during the lockdown are likely to have generated an unexpected shock to both domestic work and individual ability to contribute to household income. Using data from two novel datasets collected in Germany and Italy during the pandemic, this article shows that changes to both contribution to household income and unpaid activities during the crisis have been gendered, affecting women more negatively than men. In addition, we suggest that economic disturbances during the pandemic are associated with gendered changes in unpaid work that seem to be driven by changes in bargaining power in both countries. Our results also show some support for enhanced traditionalization of domestic life among German couples during the crisis, as predicted by gender display theories, albeit only regarding childcare.

抽象的

本文研究了COVID-19大流行期间德国和意大利男女对家庭收入贡献的变化是否与无酬工作的变化有关。当前的健康危机为探讨这些主题提供了独特的机会，因为锁定期间施加的限制性措施可能会对家庭工作和个人贡献家庭收入的能力产生意想不到的冲击。使用大流行期间在德国和意大利收集的两个新数据集的数据，本文表明，在危机期间对家庭收入贡献和无偿活动的变化已按性别分类，对妇女的影响比对男子的负面影响更大。此外，我们认为，大流行期间的经济动荡与无偿工作中的性别变化有关，这似乎是由两国议价能力的变化驱动的。我们的研究结果还显示，正如性别显示理论所预测的那样，尽管危机只涉及育儿问题，但在危机期间德国夫妻之间加强了对家庭生活传统的支持。