Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ( IF 2.681 ) Pub Date : 2021-03-02 , DOI: 10.1177/0265407521996476 Nina Waddell 1 , Nickola C. Overall 1 , Valerie T. Chang 1 , Matthew D. Hammond 2
COVID-19 lockdowns have required many working parents to balance domestic and paid labor while confined at home. Are women and men equally sharing the workload? Are inequities in the division of labor compromising relationships? Leveraging a pre-pandemic longitudinal study of couples with young children, we examine gender differences in the division and impact of domestic and paid labor during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown (N = 157 dyads). Women did more of the parenting and housework, whereas men engaged in more paid work and personal time, during the lockdown. Couple members agreed that women’s share of parenting, housework and personal time was unfair, but this did not protect women from the detrimental relationship outcomes associated with an inequitable share of domestic labor. A greater, and more unfair, share of parenting, housework and personal time predicted residual increases in relationship problems and decreases in relationship satisfaction for women. Exploratory analyses indicated that men who were the primary caregiver or were not working fulltime also experienced negative relationship outcomes when they did more housework and parenting. These results substantiate concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic may undermine advances toward gender equality by reinforcing inequitable divisions of labor, thereby damaging women’s relationship wellbeing.
中文翻译:
全国COVID-19锁定期间的性别分工:对关系问题和满意度的影响
COVID-19锁定要求许多在职父母在家里工作时平衡家庭劳动和有偿劳动。男女平等分担工作量吗?分工中的不平等会损害人际关系吗?利用大流行前对有年幼子女的夫妇进行的纵向研究,我们研究了全国COVID-19锁定期间(N= 157个二元组)。在禁闭期间,妇女从事育儿和家务劳动更多,而男子从事更多的带薪工作和私人时间。夫妻成员一致认为,妇女在育儿,做家务和个人时间上所占的比例是不公平的,但这并不能保护妇女免受与家庭劳动所占比例不平等有关的不利关系后果。育儿,家务劳动和个人时间所占比例更大且更不公平,这预示着女性的恋爱关系会残留增加,而恋爱满意度则会下降。探索性分析表明,主要照料者或未全职工作的男人在做更多的家务劳动和养育子女时也经历了负面的关系结局。