Gender and the pandemic

Associations between caregiving, working from home, personal and career outcomes for women and men

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21623874
AutoresVasilena Stefanova (0000-0001-9908-2701, Queen's University Belfast, autor correspondente), Lynn Farrell (0000-0002-3300-2673, National College of Ireland), Ioana Latu, Ioana M Latu (0000-0003-3328-9261, Queen's University Belfast)
Ano2023
Volume42
Fascículo20
Páginas17395-17411
Data de publicação2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-021-02630-6
PMID35002182
OpenAlexW4200111746
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas70

The coronavirus pandemic lockdowns have led to an increase of caregiving and household responsibilities for many employees while working from home. We aimed to investigate whether there was a gender imbalance in the division of household labour within families during the pandemic, and whether this imbalance was associated with gender differences in personal outcomes (work-family conflict, burnout) as well as career-related outcomes (career self-efficacy and aspirations). Participants were 240 heterosexual individuals with or without caregiving responsibilities who lived with a partner and worked from home during the pandemic. They completed self-report questionnaires and indicated the division of domestic tasks within their household, the extent to which they experienced burnout and work-family conflict, and their career aspirations and career self-efficacy. The findings showed a significant gender imbalance, such that female caregivers spent significantly less time on work compared to the other groups and significantly more time on caregiving compared to male caregivers during the lockdown. There was a significant direct effect of caregiving on career outcomes for women, such that the more caregiving women performed during the lockdown relative to other tasks, the more negative their self-reported career outcomes were. Among men, caregiving did not predict career outcomes. Overall, our study showed that the gender imbalance in distributions of caregiving duties during the pandemic is associated with negative personal and professional outcomes for women who are caregivers. Practical implications are discussed accounting for this gender imbalance in the context of the pandemic and its influence on wellbeing and career outcomes, particularly for heterosexual women

Burnout · Career development · Pandemic · Clinical Psychology · Family Business Performance and Succession · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges