Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2022, 58(4): 427-455 | DOI: 10.13060/csr.2022.025

Gender and Changes in the Division of Labour in Households with Children during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Hana Hašková¹, Radka Dudová¹, Lenka Formánková¹, Hana Maříková¹, Libora Oates-Indruchová², Markéta Švarcová¹, Marta Vohlídalová³

¹ Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i., Praha

² Univerzita Graz

³ AMBIS Vysoká škola, Praha

The article ties in with the scholarship on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on gender equality. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with parents of children under 12, we examine the processes that led to the increase or dismantling of the gender division of labour in families during the first nationwide lockdown. Using the concepts of path dependency and 'doing' and 'undoing' gender, we explain the strategies couples with children used to adapt to the enormous increase in reproductive work in the family during lockdown. 'Doing gender' practices witnessed during lockdown included an acceptance of the increased care work as the responsibility of women, ensuring 'a room of one's own' only for men, and separating the public and private sphere only for men. Practices that led to 'undoing gender' involved mainly the explicit negotiation between partners of the division of labour during the lockdown and the organisation of reproductive work in 'shifts'. The division of labour within a couple before the pandemic proved to be crucial for what strategy they chose to adapt to the lockdown. According to our findings, extending the egalitarian division of labour has led to greater satisfaction among partners and indicates greater societal resilience to crises.

Keywords: pandemic, Covid-19, division of labour, doing gender, undoing gender

Received: November 6, 2021; Revised: July 27, 2022; Accepted: July 27, 2022; Prepublished online: August 24, 2022; Published: September 12, 2022  Show citation