How Are Tasks Divided By Parents At Home During The Pandemic

Because of the pandemic, homeschooling became the new chore of parents. With the advancement of technology, parents have been detailing their struggles to manage it all through posting.

In two-parent households, who is shouldering the biggest role as a schoolwork supervisor? It appears that the answer depends on who you ask.

According to the polls

According to a new poll by Morning Consult for The New York Times, nearly half of the fathers said that they shouldered most of the duty, but only 3 percent of mothers agreed with that notion. Eighty percent of mothers said that they are, and not their spouses, are handling the lion's share of that supervision.

In another survey by a parents' group, ParentsTogether, 78 percent of women who live with male co-parents say that they are taking on most of the schoolwork supervision duties.

ParentsTogether asked about 1,600 of its members how they are handling distance learning. The results echo the difference in gender-based viewpoints that The New York Times poll found. The results say that nearly 75 percent of the women in the ParentsTogether poll said that they manage most of the distance learning, and 57 percent of the men said that they did. Men were far likelier than women to say that they and their partner shared the load equally.

Reasons behind the results

According to social scientists, one reason why women are doing more unpaid labor during lockdown is simple; because they always do.

Research also shows that it tends to happen even if both people in opposite-sex couples work, and even if she earns more than he does. Although in recent years, where more men have increased the time they spend on domestic duties, particularly child care, many people still believe that such things are primarily a woman's responsibility. These cultural expectations explain why women seem to have defaulted to doing and shouldering homeschooling or distance learning supervision.

On the other hand, the reason why men spend less time on unpaid work is that American workplaces expect them to. Research shows that men, in particular, are often pressured to give undivided attention towards their work. The same also happens even in same-sex couples, wherein one parent often prioritizes work while the other parent prioritizes family once they have children.

Due to many American workplaces offer with little flexibility, mothers have been more likely to pursue careers in which they can be available at home when needed, like on snow days or sick days. And right now, with schools closed for the long term, and regular classes are indefinite, it only means that the bulk of the work falls to them.

Determining how parents divide their tasks at home during the pandemic is so much of a way of asking who is the better parent. Both parents have their duties to uphold disregarding the socially-constructed roles based on their genders. Hence, parents must decide on how to keep things within their homes at a place, as well as how to better guide their children; be it in mere taking care of them or in their homeschooling.