Gender & Parenting

Much research shows that mothers face disproportionate levels of stress trying to balance work and family life. But although COVID-19 placed an unprecedented strain on professional working parents it also allowed, or forced, both men and women to be at home together, offering opportunities for gendered change. The natural social experiment that was the pandemic led me to ask: Has COVID-19 entrenched existing gender inequalities in work and parenting, or created opportunities for change? 

In 2020, I conducted Zoom interviews with 80 heterosexually partnered parents working from home while homeschooling at least one elementary or middle-school aged child. I then conducted 30 follow-up interviews with a sub-set of the sample in 2022. 

Check out published articles from this project below.

Future article topics include: gendered conceptualizations of “quality family” time; the relationship between inequality and flexible work conditions; and explaining egalitarian outliers.  WATCH THIS SPACE!