The pandemic has merely exposed existing gender disparities in a telling way. With both parents at home, working from home – who still does the bulk of the child care work?
Child care demands at home skyrocketed during the pandemic, but men and women did not split the burden equally. In this report released by the Center for Global Development, India tops the charts when it comes to gender gaps on this front.
“Every year, year in year out, there are trillions of hours of unpaid care work being done, the considerable majority by women,” Charles Kenny, one of the study’s authors, said. “We are not going to get to a world that sees gender equality until that burden is more evenly shared.”
Go here to read more about this study – https://www.cgdev.org/publication/global-childcare-workload-school-and-preschool-closures-during-covid-19-pandemic
What needs to happen for men to share the load equally?
How to compute the value of the unpaid domestic work done by the women folk remains one of economics greatest challenges!
Actually, it is not that tough Gayatri and it is already being done across the world in various studies. Once you remove the emotional veil that societal norms put on women, it is pretty easy to work out the value of the work done.
This study shows what we all have known all along. It remains a challenge which the current generation can lessen through dialogue and negotiation. But the next generation can truly significantly solve if we bring up our boys and girls differently.
Completely agree, Swati! While men of this generation are far more participative in home care and family care, this can only be balanced out fully over the next generations. And the role we play in bringing up our boys and girls is critical.