'Pandemic resistant': Despite more than half of households shaking up their work arrangements, the way parents share domestic labour has hardly changed
The division of domestic labour among Australian families has barely budged during the pandemic, despite more than half of households shaking up their work arrangements.
AIFS director Anne Hollonds said the results proved certain social norms were "pandemic resistant". She said she had initially been expecting that the crisis – much like the way it overhauled our working lives – would have helped transform some entrenched gender patterns where household responsibilities were largely "women's work".
"In the midst of a crisis, it all happened very quickly, it's probably not a time we'll feel able to do that and we will slip back into familiar patterns. Ms Fogarty's mother flew home in early May and the girls returned to daycare. Ms Fogarty and Mr Evans share their parenting responsibilities equally and she described him as an "awesome father". But housework is different.
Ms Fogarty said they both came from "quite traditional families" but said this was "not a preferred arrangement". The AIFS report found that seven in 10 parents were actively or passively caring for children while they worked from home. For Ms Fogarty, with two toddlers, that was "not an option".
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