Remote work can reduce childcare gap when fathers have progressive gender role attitudes

"New research from King's Business School and the University of Konstanz has found that remote work can support a more equal division of childcare in heterosexual couples, but only when men hold progressive gender role attitudes. Using 13 years of data from Germany, the study finds that remote work only leads fathers to take on more childcare when they hold progressive views about gender roles. Where men believe domestic work is mainly a woman's job, remote work does not shift the balance and can even increase the burden on mothers."

"In practice, the findings suggest that remote work alone cannot deliver equality at home. When mothers work remotely, women tend to shoulder even more childcare and housework, particularly when they hold traditional views about men's domestic responsibilities. When fathers work remotely and see domestic work as a shared responsibility, they tend to take on a greater share of it. Fathers who hold more traditional views do not show the same change."

"Using data from the German Family Panel (2008-2021), the study published in the European Sociological Review, found that women still carry the bulk of domestic work, doing around 70% of housework and childcare on average. But as remote work became more common, rising from one in ten parents before the pandemic to one-third of mothers and nearly half of fathers by 2021, it opened the door, at least in theory, to a fairer division of care."

Remote work can enable a fairer division of childcare in heterosexual couples when fathers hold progressive beliefs about gender roles. Fathers who view domestic work as shared and work remotely take on more childcare. Fathers with traditional views do not increase their share and remote work can instead raise mothers' childcare and housework burden. Women continue to perform about 70% of domestic work on average. Remote work adoption rose substantially by 2021, but equal sharing requires addressing traditional expectations about men's domestic responsibilities alongside promoting remote work for fathers.

Read at Phys