Perspective: COVID-19 has reminded us of the value of 'women's work'. It has also forced us back to the old dynamics of family units, writes JacquelineMaley
the coronavirus “smashes up” the bargain struck between many couples: “We can both work, because someone else is looking after our children.” Instead, Lewis writes, “couples will have to decide which one of them takes the hit”.
Any heterosexual nuclear family crunching the numbers will deem it more sensible for the woman’s job to take the back seat during the corona crisis. Such gender divides are unlikely to shift during a crisis that forces us all back into the home, deep into the pre-existing dynamics of our family units.
But for functional households headed by two parents who are both trying to work, and who work it all out, the corona crisis might bring about some quiet changes that will last. During lockdown, work bleeds into family life at every moment, with the exuberance of the little girl who became an internet sensation when she interrupted the BBC News interview her dad was trying to do about North Korea. Children storm into Zoom meetings. Daily exercise has to be squeezed between deadlines. The television is a babysitter and everything is a bit of a mess.
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