While working from home has been adopted by many companies in the wake of the Covid pandemic, it may be unintentionally forcing couples into a more ‘traditional’ lifestyle.
A new study of parents who don’t regularly visit an office has shown that mothers usually do most of the childcare, while fathers do less.
This is thought to be because mothers use flexible working arrangements to plan most of the responsibilities at home.
“FEAR OF LOSSING THEIR MAN”
University of Essex and University of Kent researchers suggest that work-at-home dads fear they may ‘lose their manhood’ if they take on more routine tasks.
The study, published in Work, Employment and Society, found that women spend an average of 13.4 hours per week on housework, while men spend 5.5 hours per week. Additionally, 54 percent of mothers reported that they were primarily responsible for child care.
When it comes to work arrangements, seven percent of fathers and only five percent of mothers reported staying at home. However, while 15 percent of mothers benefited from flex time, the same was true for only 11 percent of men. The researchers found that parents in high-income occupations were more likely to use flexible working arrangements than those in low-income jobs.
THEY DON’T SHARE CHILD CARE
The researchers found that when fathers worked from home, they were half as likely to report sharing childcare as those who could not work from home.