BACKGROUND
First evidence shows that lockdown and confinement measures were associated with a more egalitarian gender division of housework in the United Kingdom. However, we know little about how the gender division of housework adjusted in different phases of the pandemic.

OBJECTIVE
We ask: (1) How did the gender division of housework change with the first national lockdown in March 2020? (2) Did observed changes persist when the lockdown measures were lifted or did couples revert to the gender division of housework observed before lockdown?

METHODS
We describe changes in the share of housework done by women before, during, and after the first lockdown using data from the Understanding Society COVID-19 study and employing fixed effects regression for couples with pre-school or school age children and couples without children living at home.

RESULTS
The lockdown measures affected the gender division of housework with differential effects by the age of the youngest child in the household. After the initial shock, couples with younger children and couples with school-age children reverted to their pre-pandemic gender division of housework. However, couples without children living at home sustained a more equal share of housework.

CONCLUSIONS
Like other shocks to the division of labor, couples tend to adapt to new circumstances, sustaining previous patterns of within household inequality. Initial signs of increasing gender equality at the start of the pandemic had already started to vanish for some by September 2020.



中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间家务劳动的性别分工：暂时的冲击还是持久的变化？（作者：亚历杭德拉·罗德里格斯·桑切斯、安妮特·法桑、苏珊·哈克尼斯）

背景
第一个证据表明，在英国，封锁和限制措施与家务劳动的性别分工更加平等有关。然而，我们对家务劳动的性别分工在大流行的不同阶段如何调整知之甚少。

目标
我们问：（1）随着 2020 年 3 月的第一次全国封锁，家务劳动的性别分工如何变化？(2) 解除封锁措施后观察到的变化是否持续存在，或者夫妻是否恢复到封锁前观察到的家务劳动的性别分工？

方法
我们使用来自了解社会 COVID-19 研究的数据描述了女性在第一次封锁之前、期间和之后完成的家务份额的变化，并对有学龄前或学龄儿童的夫妇和没有孩子的夫妇采用固定效应回归在家。

结果
封锁措施影响了家务劳动的性别分工，其影响因家庭中最小孩子的年龄而异。在最初的震惊之后，有年幼孩子的夫妇和有学龄儿童的夫妇恢复了大流行前的家务劳动性别分工。然而，住在家里的没有孩子的夫妇承担了更平等的家务劳动。

结论
与劳动分工的其他冲击一样，夫妻往往会适应新环境，维持家庭内部不平等的先前模式。到 2020 年 9 月，一些人在大流行开始时加强性别平等的初步迹象已经开始消失。