Economic and social disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have important implications for gender and class inequality. Drawing on Statistics Canada’s monthly Labour Force Survey, we document trends in gender gaps in employment and work hours over the pandemic (February–October 2020). Our findings highlight the importance of care provisions for gender equity, with gaps larger among parents than people without children, and most pronounced when care and employment were more difficult to reconcile. When employment barriers eased, so did the gender–employment gap. The pandemic could not undo longer-standing cultural and structural shifts motivating contemporary mothers’ employment. The pandemic also exacerbated educational inequalities among women, highlighting the importance of assessing gendered impacts through an intersectional lens.
BoeckmannIreneMisraJoyaBudigMichelle J.2015. Cultural and institutional factors shaping mothers’ employment and working hours in postindustrial countries. Social Forces93 (4): 1301–33.
2.
BrochuPierreCréchetJonathanDengZechuan. 2020. Labour market flows and worker trajectories in Canada during COVID-19. Économie: Publications; Economics: Working Papers. University of Ottawa. https://ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/41170/1/2005E.pdf.
3.
BudigMichelle J.MisraJoyaBoeckmannIrene. 2016. Work–family policy trade-offs for mothers? Unpacking the cross-national variation in motherhood earnings penalties. Work and Occupations43 (2): 119–77.
FullerSylvia. 2018. Segregation across workplaces and the motherhood wage gap: Why do mothers work in low-wage establishments?Social Forces96 (4): 1443–76.
GuppyNeilSakumotoLarissaWilkesRima. 2019. Social change and the gendered division of household labor in Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue Canadienne de Sociologie56 (2): 178–203.
15.
HirshC. ElizabethTreleavenChristinaFullerSylvia. 2020. Caregivers, gender and the law: An analysis of family responsibility discrimination case outcomes. Gender & Society34 (5): 760–89.
KeckWolfgangSaracenoChiara. 2013. The impact of different social-policy frameworks on social inequalities among women in the European Union: The labour-market participation of mothers. Social Politics20 (3): 297–328.
18.
LemieuxThomasMilliganKevinSchirleTammySkuterudMikal. 2020. Initial impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the Canadian labour market. Canadian Public Policy46 (Suppl 1): S55–S65.
PedullaDavid S.ThébaudSarah. 2015. Can we finish the revolution? Gender, work-family ideals, and institutional constraint. American Sociological Review80 (1): 116–39.
24.
PrenticeSusan. 2009. High stakes: The “investable” child and the economic reframing of childcare. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society34 (3): 687–710.
QianYueFullerSylvia. 2020. COVID-19 and the gender employment gap among parents of young children. Canadian Public Policy46 (Suppl 2): S89–S101.
27.
RuppannerLeahMollerStephanieLianaSayer. 2019. Expensive childcare and short school days = lower maternal employment and more time in childcare? Evidence from the American time use survey. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World5:1–14.
28.
ShaferKevinScheiblingCaseyMilkieMelissa A.2020. The division of domestic labor before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: Stagnation versus shifts in fathers’ contributions. Canadian Review of Sociology57 (4): 523–49.
29.
Statistics Canada. 2020. Canadian Perspectives Survey Series 3—Resuming Economic and Social Activities During COVID-10, Public Use Microdata. Ottawa: Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/45250007.
WeisshaarKatherine. 2018. From opt out to blocked out: The challenges for labor market re-entry after family-related employment lapses. American Sociological Review83 (1): 34–60.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
