Within these walls: Covid-19 is changing our home life and that provides opportunities

Across Australia, most families are sheltering at home. In today’s analysis, Elizabeth Hill (@ElizabethHill00), of University of Sydney (@SydneyUni) and the Australian Work and Family Policy Roundtable, explains how that is differentially impacting women and how this moment in time can strengthen our social norms and economy going forward.

Our world has become very small. Most of us no longer venture far from home. All that we do - work, care, learn and play - now takes place within our four walls. This relocation of activity into the home is placing an enormous burden on households as they have been deployed nation-wide to manage the health crisis. It makes sense, but is it sustainable? Australian households vary in size, economic security, access to privacy, levels of social harmony and the demand for care. And yet all are now required to be places of paid work (for those fortunate enough to have this option) education, leisure, and care alongside the regular tasks of household production such as cooking and cleaning.

Everyone’s home. Compressing all aspects of our lives to within the confines of our homes puts undue pressure on women. Photo by John Moeses Bauan on Unsplash

The corona virus restrictions are exposing how fragile our carefully calibrated routines of work and care have always been. Many forms of public and private support have ceased to operate in their normal way and all activities have been devolved to the realm of the household and family. It is within these small units that we not only have to complete the ‘normal’ work/care load, but also a burgeoning number of additional tasks.

With everyone at home there are more meals to prepare, additional shopping to be done, and extra cleaning. At the same time many of these basic tasks need to be completed for elderly relatives, neighbours, and those who are in self-isolation.

Alongside these practical tasks is the escalation in the emotional labour required to manage the anxiety and stress of the pandemic amongst our family and community. And this is all before illness potentially sets in and creates a further increase in the care load, which will fall more heavily on women.

The health crisis has created a care crisis as the burden of care and domestic production escalates. The evolving economic crisis is adding daily to the pressures on households, further exposing their fragility. And, as our political leaders are at pains to make very clear, there is no immediate relief in sight. This makes households an urgent site for assistance and support.

The evolving burden of work and care being absorbed by households during this crisis exposes entrenched patterns in the division of labour.

Australian households, like most around the world, display deep patterns of gender inequality. Where men and women share a home, women perform the bulk of domestic work whether they earn a similar income to their male partner or more. Inequality in the distribution of unpaid work is much higher in households with children. Recent HILDA data shows that in couple households with dependent children where both partners earn a similar sized wage women, on average, do 7 hours more housework than men plus 7 hours more childcare – a total of 14 hours per week more unpaid work. And where women earn more than men they still do 13 hours more unpaid work if they have children, and around 10 hours more if there are no kids.

In the context of COVID-19 and the wholesale relocation of work and care to the home, patterns of household labour suggest it is most likely women who find themselves responsible for shouldering the additional household labour. Add supervision for home schooling to this equation, especially in vulnerable households, and the potential for household distress intensifies.

Global evidence alerts us to the increase in gender-based violence during times of crisis and when households are put under significant strain. There are already reports that domestic violence is increasing in Australia.

Household stress is an outcome of the health, care and economic crises we now confront. But it can be mitigated. Shared responsibility for care and domestic work will spread the practical and emotional load.

In this time of crisis men must be encouraged and supported to take up their fair share of the care load in the home and in the community. This would create a ‘care bridge’ that would deliver households to the other side of this health crisis stronger and more resilient.

Young Australian men increasingly report their preference for gender equal relationships and a dual-earner/dual-carer model of the household. But they often find it difficult to move in this direction due to the strength of social norms operating in their workplaces, families and society.

A shift toward equal sharing of care and domestic labour will galvanise our relationships, protect our households and keep our communities strong thought the current crisis and beyond.

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

Posted by @SusanMaury @GoodAdvocacy