As women’s participation in paid work has risen in the 20th and 21st centuries, the gender gap in unpaid work has not narrowed to the same degree; the modern woman continues to do more unpaid labour than the modern man. The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant changes in people’s paid working practises, with remote work becoming widespread for the first time, and with many people furloughed. These arrangements led to a huge increase in the number of couples where the woman was in paid work and the man was not. This dissertation looks at individuals from heterosexual, cohabiting couples during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on couples where the woman did more paid work than her partner. I explore how and why unpaid labour was allocated within these couples, as well as perceptions of the fairness of this division; I do this by gathering quantitative and qualitative data to triangulate and develop a comprehensive understanding of emotions and rationales surrounding gender and unpaid labour. Results indicate that couples where the woman did more paid work than her partner had significantly more equal distributions of unpaid labour during the pandemic compared to other couples. However, results also indicate that although the distribution was more equal, it continued to be unfair, with unpaid labour continuing to be allocated to women within the couples of interest despite them exerting more time and/or effort on paid work. In exploring the reasons behind this unequal allocation of unpaid work, I found that this was largely because women are more attuned to what tasks need doing, and when, than men are. Results also indicate that women perceive this division as unfair, and that both genders claim to do more unpaid labour than their partners give them credit for. I conclude that resource allocation theories may to a limited extent explain some of the unequal distribution of unpaid labour within couples, but that the pervasive nature of gender roles, particularly the affect they have on our cognitive functioning, sustain this unequal division even when respective resources do not.
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