Comment – Did the COVID-19 Crisis Contribute to a Change in the Gender-Based Division of Work within Families?

Abstract

This commentary puts into perspective two of the articles in this issue, which analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the allocation of time within families in France: one written by Ariane Pailhé, Anne Solaz and Lionel Wilner, the other by Hugues Champeaux and Francesca Marchetta. Both reveal that family arrangements appeared generally flexible, since time use changed significantly in the context of the crisis, leading to men becoming much more involved in household chores and parenting in particular. However, far from being unprecedented, this flexibility is compatible with a traditional division of roles according to gender. The changes observed may result from a model of domestic production in which the man plays the role of a secondary worker who can be mobilised in the event of the unavailability of the primary worker, the woman. Decisions made by families in France are still anchored to gender norms;not only does this constitute a waste of resources, it also generates temporal inequalities that may manifest as intra-family conflicts. © 2022, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques. All rights reserved.