scholarly journals Gendered Division of Labour during a Nationwide COVID-19 Lockdown: Implications for Relationship Problems and Satisfaction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Waddell ◽  
Nickola Overall ◽  
Valerie Chang ◽  
Matthew Hammond

COVID-19 lockdowns have required many working parents to balance domestic and paid labour while confined at home. Are women and men equally sharing the workload? Are inequities in the division of labour compromising relationships? Leveraging a pre-pandemic longitudinal study of couples with young children, we examine gender differences in the division and impact of domestic and paid labour during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown (N = 157 dyads). Women took on more of the parenting and housework, whereas men engaged in more paid work and personal time, during the lockdown. Couple members agreed that women’s share of parenting, housework and personal time was unfair, but this did not protect women burdened with an inequitable share of domestic labour from experiencing detrimental relationship outcomes. A greater, and more unfair, share of parenting, housework and personal time predicted residual increases in relationship problems and decreases in relationship satisfaction for women. Men who were not working full-time or were the primary caregiver also experienced negative relationship outcomes when they did more housework and parenting. These results substantiate concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic may undermine advances toward gender equality by reinforcing inequitable divisions of labour, thereby damaging women’s relationship wellbeing.

2021 ◽  
pp. 026540752199647
Author(s):  
Nina Waddell ◽  
Nickola C. Overall ◽  
Valerie T. Chang ◽  
Matthew D. Hammond

COVID-19 lockdowns have required many working parents to balance domestic and paid labor while confined at home. Are women and men equally sharing the workload? Are inequities in the division of labor compromising relationships? Leveraging a pre-pandemic longitudinal study of couples with young children, we examine gender differences in the division and impact of domestic and paid labor during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown ( N = 157 dyads). Women did more of the parenting and housework, whereas men engaged in more paid work and personal time, during the lockdown. Couple members agreed that women’s share of parenting, housework and personal time was unfair, but this did not protect women from the detrimental relationship outcomes associated with an inequitable share of domestic labor. A greater, and more unfair, share of parenting, housework and personal time predicted residual increases in relationship problems and decreases in relationship satisfaction for women. Exploratory analyses indicated that men who were the primary caregiver or were not working fulltime also experienced negative relationship outcomes when they did more housework and parenting. These results substantiate concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic may undermine advances toward gender equality by reinforcing inequitable divisions of labor, thereby damaging women’s relationship wellbeing.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Hwee Wee ◽  
Gweon-Young Kang

Addiction is related to aggression and quality of life. This study examined the relationship between these three factors according to occupation group in a mixed urban/rural area to better understand adult addiction problems. This study was a secondary data analysis of cross-sectional data collected by a 2017 regional survey of adults living in Gunsan City, South Korea. The survey included 500 people split into the unemployed (Group1), full-time homemakers (Group2), and primary (Group3), secondary (Group4), and tertiary (Group5) industry workers. Addiction problems and aggression were positively correlated (p < 0.01). Aggression and alcohol use disorder were correlated in Group3 (r = 0.31), Group4 (r = 0.34), and Group5 (r = 0.32), and aggression and smartphone addiction were correlated in Group2 (r = 0.39) and Group4 (r = 0.31). Problem gambling was correlated with aggression in Group5 (r = 0.39). A negative relationship between quality of life and alcohol use disorder occurred in Group1 (r = −0.36). According to the occupation group, the relationships between addiction problems, aggression, and quality of life were different. These findings suggest that addiction management for adults should be implemented in consideration of occupation groups.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402199166
Author(s):  
Hans-Peter Y. Qvist

The nature of the relationship between the time people spend on paid work and volunteering remains debated in the social sciences. Time constraint theory suggests a negative relationship because people can allocate only as much time to volunteering as their work responsibilities permit. However, social integration theory suggests a more complex inverse U-shaped relationship because paid work not only limits people’s free time but also plays a key role in their social integration. Departing from these competing theories, this study uses two-wave panel data from Denmark to examine the relationship between hours of paid work and volunteering. In support of time constraint theory, the results suggest that hours of paid work have a significant negative effect on the total number of hours that people spend volunteering, not mainly because paid work hours affect people’s propensity to volunteer but because they affect the number of hours that volunteers contribute.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 576-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Cihlar ◽  
Sonia Lippke

In this study, we draw attention to time-competing activities and psychological variables as impeding or enabling factors of physical activity behavior in 55- to 70-year-old Germans. Cross-sectional data was used (n = 4,891). Results indicate that paid work has a negative relationship with sufficient physical activity. Persons who provide nursing care seem to be motivated to achieve sufficient physical activity behavior, but do not meet established recommendations. Active citizenship positively relates to higher physical activity levels. The investment of energy in life domains and a distinct internal locus of control characterize motivated underachievers. Those sufficiently physically active show higher values in conscientiousness. This suggests that time-consuming and strongly externally determined activities like nursing care and paid work hinder a sufficient level of physical activity, even if the motivation is existent. Active citizenship and physical activity seem to be linked processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1479-1487
Author(s):  
Hannah C. Williamson

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected intimate relationships? The existing literature is mixed on the effect of major external stressors on couple relationships, and little is known about the early experience of crises. The current study used 654 individuals involved in a relationship who provided data immediately before the onset of the pandemic (December, 2019) and twice during the early stages of the pandemic (March and April, 2020). Results indicate that relationship satisfaction and causal attributions did not change over time, but responsibility attributions decreased on average. Changes in relationship outcomes were not moderated by demographic characteristics or negative repercussions of the pandemic. There were small moderation effects of relationship coping and conflict during the pandemic, revealing that satisfaction increased and maladaptive attributions decreased in couples with more positive functioning, and satisfaction decreased and maladaptive attributions increased in couples with lower functioning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Huws

This article revisits materialist second-wave feminist debates about domestic labour in the context of digitalisation. Using a differentiated typology of labour, it looks at how the tasks involved in housework have undergone dramatic changes through commodification, decommodification and recommodification without fundamentally altering the gender division of labour in social reproduction, drawing on recent research on the use of online platforms to deliver social reproductive labour via the market in a context in which reproductive labour sits at the centre of an intense time squeeze. It reflects on the implications of the commodification of domestic labour for feminist strategy. The author points to the inadequacy in this context of traditional feminist strategies—for the socialisation of domestic labour through public services, wages for housework or labour-saving through technological solutions—concluding that new strategies are needed that address the underlying social relations that perpetuate unequal divisions of labour in contemporary capitalism.


1993 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Gregson ◽  
Michelle Lowe

This paper is concerned with extending debate on the renegotiation of the domestic division of labour within the context of contemporary economic restructuring. Our focus is on a form of household which is becoming increasingly common in Britain in the 1990s. This is the dual career household, in which both partners are in full time professional/managerial employment. A sample of 71 households drawn from the North east and South east, forms the basis for the study. The paper is divided into three main sections. In the first we establish a typology of forms of the domestic division of labour, as well as a means of allocating individual households to particular forms of the domestic division of labour. Then we move on to discuss the degree of variation in particular forms of the domestic division of labour found within our sample households and illustrate these with reference to five case studies. In our final section we consider the implications of our findings for the respective arguments of Lydia Morris and Jane Wheelock; point to the significance of gender identities to an understanding of between household variation in form of the domestic division of labour; and suggest how our findings shed light on the debate over women and social class.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherzodbek Murodilla Ugli Dadaboyev ◽  
Yoonjung Baek ◽  
Seong Ik Ahn

Purpose This study aims to examine how an employee’s engagement in innovative behavior (IB) can lead to the experience of aggressive actions from other members of an organization and the joint roles of employee in-role performance and task interdependence in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach A field study conducted among a diverse sample of employees working in various industries provided converging evidence for the theorized predictions. The sample of 204 full-time employees is included in the analyses. Findings The results confirmed that innovative employees can be targets of victimization in an organization and employees’ high in-role performance and high task interdependence jointly moderate the negative relationship between innovative performance and victimization. Research limitations/implications The current study should be evaluated in light of some limitations, such as single-source data and the use of cross-sectional data. Practical implications It is advised that innovative individuals should accomplish their required duties in highly task-interdependent contexts to avoid harmful responses from peers. Managers should be aware of the potential negative side of IB. The data involving various industries provide evidence for the generalizability of the research findings and conclusions. Originality/value This paper advances the understanding of the consequences of creative behavior by examining the unexplored aspect that innovative employees can become victims of peer mistreatments. It also expands the understanding of negative outcomes of engaging in creativity by concurrently examining moderating roles of in-role behavior and task interdependence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-363
Author(s):  
Merve Uzunalioglu ◽  
Marie Valentova ◽  
Margaret O'Brien ◽  
Anne-Sophie Genevois

This article aims to explore the role of eligibility for parental leave as a determinant of access and as an enabler of leave take-up. To analyse the link between eligibility and take-up, we study a unique policy change in Luxembourg’s parental leave scheme. The country’s 2016 parental leave reform relaxed the eligibility criteria to enable marginal part-time working parents to access the parental leave scheme for the first time. We focus on this change and examine to what extent relaxing the eligibility criteria translated into increased take-up by the marginal part-time working parents who became eligible. To quantify this transition, we analyse trends in and patterns of eligibility for the scheme in Luxembourg between 2009 and 2018 among first-time parents working full-time, part-time, or marginal part-time hours. We use a subsample of Luxembourg-resident, cohabiting, first-time parents (N = 6,254) drawn from the social security data. Our analysis shows that as eligibility is dependent on individual factors, it has similarities among mothers and fathers, whereas take-up is notably greater for mothers. After the reform, we observe that marginal part-time working mothers started taking parental leave, but up to 2018, the reform’s outreach to marginal part-time working fathers remained limited. We also find that foreign national parents are less likely to be eligible for parental leave and have lower take-up rates. Despite the gendered parental leave take-up behaviours in parallel with international evidence, marginal part-time working mothers’ positive response to the reform indicates progress towards strengthening women’s labour market attachment in Luxembourg.


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