Examining high frequency national-level panel data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) on paid work (employment) and unpaid work (time spent on domestic work), this paper examines the effects of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on the gender gaps in paid and unpaid work until December 2020, using difference-in-differences (D-I-D) for estimating the before (the pandemic) and after (the pandemic set in) effects, and event study estimates around the strict national lockdown in April 2020. The DID estimates reveal a lowering of the gender gap in employment probabilities which occurs due to the lower probability of male employment, rather than an increase in female employment. The first month of the national lockdown, April 2020, saw a large contraction in employment for both men and women, where more men lost jobs in absolute terms. Between April and August 2020 male employment recovered steadily as the economy unlocked. The event study estimates show that in August 2020, for women, the likelihood of being employed was 9% points lower than that for men, compared to April 2019, conditional on previous employment. However, by December 2020, gender gaps in employment were at the December 2019 levels. The burden of domestic chores worsened for women under the pandemic. Men spent more time on housework in April 2020 relative to December 2019, but by December 2020, the average male hours had declined to below the pre-pandemic levels, whereas women’s average hours increased sharply. Time spent with friends fell sharply between December 2019 and April 2020, with a larger decline in the case of women. The hours spent with friends recovered in August 2020, to again decline by December 2020 to roughly one-third of the pre-pandemic levels. The paper adopts an intersectional lens to examine how these trends vary by social group identity.

本文检查了印度经济监测中心 (CMIE) 关于有偿工作（就业）和无偿工作（花在家务上的时间）的高频国家级面板数据，研究了第一波 Covid-19 大流行对直到 2020 年 12 月，有偿和无偿工作中的性别差距，使用差异中的差异 (DID) 来估计之前（大流行）和之后（大流行开始）的影响，以及围绕 4 月严格的国家封锁的事件研究估计2020. DID 的估计显示，由于男性就业的可能性较低，而不是女性就业的增加，就业概率的性别差距正在缩小。2020 年 4 月全国封锁的第一个月，男性和女性的就业都出现了大幅收缩，以绝对值计算，更多的男性失去了工作。在 2020 年 4 月至 2020 年 8 月期间，随着经济解锁，男性就业稳步复苏。事件研究估计显示，与 2019 年 4 月相比，在 2020 年 8 月，女性就业的可能性比男性低 9%，这取决于之前的就业情况。然而，到 2020 年 12 月，就业方面的性别差距已达到 2019 年 12 月的水平。在大流行期间，女性的家务负担加重了。相对于 2019 年 12 月，男性在 2020 年 4 月花在家务上的时间更多，但到 2020 年 12 月，男性的平均小时数已降至疫情前水平以下，而女性的平均小时数则急剧增加。在 2019 年 12 月至 2020 年 4 月期间，与朋友共度的时间急剧下降，女性的下降幅度更大。与朋友共度的时间在 2020 年 8 月恢复，到 2020 年 12 月再次下降到大流行前水平的三分之一左右。本文采用交叉视角来研究这些趋势如何因社会群体身份而变化。