According to an article in the Guardian newspaper in November 2020, researchers, business leaders and parenting campaigners believe that changing perceptions of fatherhood as a result of the pandemic could produce the most profound shift in caring responsibilities since the Second World War. The impact of furlough, working from home or loss of employment, coupled with children having to be educated at home for a long period, has produced some fundamental changes in the way in which families and employment operate. One of the most significant changes is the considerable increase in the number of hours men are spending with their children.
Mothers have always taken on the main responsibilities of childcare and domestic duties, and took on a disproportionate share during the pandemic. Nevertheless, men’s involvement with their family also changed. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that a few months into the first lockdown there had been a 58% increase in the amount of childcare undertaken by men, leading to a narrowing of the ‘gender care gap’. In 2015, the ONS found that men spent on average just 39% of the time that women did on childcare. During lockdown, this increased to 64%. Nowhere near gender equality, of course, as Rupa Huq points out elsewhere in this issue, but a more equitable picture.
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