It is no secret to any parent that the pandemic has changed our lives, and has multiplied the work involved in parenting . The confinement and closures of nurseries and schools led us to such a rapid reorganization of our routines that in many homes we had to sacrifice working hours in favor of childcare. What a new study carried out by the Center for Global Development has shown is that this work was taken over mostly by women and that, although to a different extent taking into account the income level of the countries, this occurred all over the world.
Unlike other studies already published, this one has been carried out with data collected throughout 2020 by UNESCO, the World Bank and the UN. According to the figures, women worked 217 hours and men 70 additional unpaid hours per woman in low- and middle-income countries . That is, in these countries, about three-quarters of the care workload traditionally falls on women, compared with about two-thirds in high-income countries.
More childcare hours: more mental burden and less income for women
Obviously this has had a direct impact on our physical and mental state : cases of clinical insomnia in mothers doubled: from 11% before the pandemic to 23% during it. Furthermore, up to 80% of the mothers reported having moderate to high levels of anxiety. The most worrying thing of all is that reversing this effect requires investment from the states (many of which do not have the capacity to do so), but also will and support from the family nucleus.
Another neuralgic point of the entire study is the economic consequences that Covid-19 has brought on the professional development of women: “This increase in the astonishingly large and unequal childcare workload may have been one of the factors behind the disproportionate drop in women’s employment and the closure of women-owned businesses during the pandemic, “ the authors note.
- An upper-middle economy is defined, by the World Bank, as a country with a per capita gross national income of less than US $ 12,536 or more in 2019 .
In Babies and More | Mothers with young children who telework are those who suffer the most stress during confinement, confirms a Spanish study
