The COVID-19 pandemic was a period of immense change. We all remember the fear and uncertainty of the early stages of the pandemic, and how we adapted to handle new domestic tasks such as disinfecting every surface and helping children with remote schooling. After the abrupt and sweeping changes of the early lockdown period, we faced more disruptions. Through cyclical spikes in COVID cases, we dealt with the uneven reopening, and periodic closing, of schools, workplaces, and social gatherings, leading not only to new challenges managing work and family obligations, but also the stress of uncertainty. 

Research highlights lasting impacts of these fluctuating conditions, such as the increased prevalence of remote work and continued learning losses among children due to educational disruptions. Yet, despite an emphasis on the increased burdens of domestic work and subsequent stress placed on mothers early in the pandemic, there has been relatively little discussion about whether the pandemic has had a lasting effect on parents’ divisions of housework and childcare. Has greater access to remote work helped fathers to remain more involved in domestic labor as they were during pandemic lockdowns? Or did the increased burdens on mothers during the pandemic exacerbate gender gaps in domestic labor?

In a recent study published in Demographic Research, we sought to understand how parents’ divisions of housework and childcare changed throughout the pandemic. Using novel data from the Survey on U.S. Parents’ Divisions of Labor During COVID-19, we examined trends in parents’ divisions of domestic labor from prior to the pandemic (March 2020) to post-pandemic (October 2023). In doing so, we are the first to examine patterns throughout the duration of the pandemic in the U.S., enabling us to assess the extent to which the pandemic had lasting changes on domestic divisions of domestic labor.

Surprisingly, we find that most U.S. parents maintained the same division of housework and childcare throughout the entire observed period from pre- to post-pandemic. Despite all of the changes that occurred throughout the pandemic, gendered patterns of domestic labor remain remarkably stable. Among parents who did experience changes, we observed that parents were much more likely to shift to fathers taking on equal or greater shares of childcare than to shift toward a more traditional division where mothers perform more childcare than they previously did. However, parents were equally likely to shift to a more traditional division of housework as a nontraditional division (i.e., equal sharing or fathers doing more). We find that fathers’ remote work and mothers’ employment were key factors in promoting a shift to a more nontraditional division of domestic labor.

The relative stability of parents’ divisions of housework and childcare illustrates how embedded these gendered norms and practices are within American culture. However, results from our study suggest that some changes have occurred, particularly in regard to long-term shifts toward more nontraditional divisions of childcare. Fathers increasingly want to be more involved in their children’s lives, and the pandemic provided an opportunity for fathers to be more fully engaged dads due in large part to more flexible work options. The continuation of flexible work combined with increased employment opportunities for mothers moving forward present opportunities for continued (albeit slow) progress toward greater gender equality in housework and childcare.

Daniel L. Carlson is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah. He is a sociologist and family demographer studying the gendered division of labor. He serves on the board of directors for the Council on Contemporary Families. You can follow him on X @DanielCarlson_1.

Richard J. Petts is a Professor of Sociology and Associate Dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities at Ball State University. He also serves on the board of directors for the Council on Contemporary Families. You can read more about his research at www.richardpetts.com and can follow him on X @pettsric.