Fathers care more, mothers continue to manage

Changes in role distribution

The qualitative study shows that only one family did not experience any change in terms of role distribution within the household. This concerns the family with a single parent, where the care task of the ex-partner remained unchanged. The other families experienced varying degrees of change in the division of roles within the household. As a result of the lockdown, many parents work at home and have become more flexible in combining work with care and/or parenting. Mothers, as well as many fathers, also adjusted their working days during the corona crisis.

Fathers start caring and parenting more

Although the roles did not change equally in all families surveyed, it does show that fathers started caring and parenting more. Because they started working more at home, they were able to combine work and care more flexibly. As a result, they have become more emotionally involved in the upbringing, care and education of their children and the well-being of their partner. However, where fathers already had a fairly large share within the household, no major shifts in the division of labour take place.

Mothers remain responsible: the third shift

In almost all the families studied, women have the largest number of household tasks to perform. When there is a more equal division of labour, it appears that fathers often perform practical tasks that they enjoy. Mothers often remain the manager of the family. This is also known as the 'third shift'. Whereas the first shift refers to paid work and the second shift to unpaid work in and around the house, the third shift refers to everything the family needs in a practical, social and emotional sense. It is a sense of responsibility for the affairs of the home and keeping an overview. Mothers usually take on this third shift, while fathers can often take this pressure off themselves.

Stress and combination pressure

Some parents note that working from home increasingly blurs the boundaries between work and home. The combination of working, caring and supervising homeschooling creates a lot of pressure. However, there are important differences in families' starting positions. For some parents, the workload and amount of work increased. For other parents, work became less demanding or lay dormant.

Factors influencing this include:

• The supportive and/or flexible attitude from the employer

• A favourable financial situation

• Declining assignments for self-employed workers

• Children's care needs and their need for support in attending school

• Being able to make use of informal care

Expectations for the future

For almost all families, both parents are (very) positive about an increased father role within the household. Most fathers note that the bond with their children has strengthened and that it is nice to be able to take over household tasks from their partner. Most parents would also like to see lasting changes in the division of roles compared to the situation before the corona crisis. However, a number of parents do think that they will eventually fall back into the old patterns, as they see several limitations to realise their desired pattern of living in the future.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, some recommendations have therefore been made.

Atria recommends employers:

• Better enable flexible working to improve work-life balance for both mothers and fathers

• Better enable part-time work where full-time is the norm

• Ensure a culture change: make it normal for men to take parental leave and care for their children themselves

Atria advises the government:

• Promote the norm that childcare is a shared responsibility by giving parents equal leave at the birth of a child

• Ensure that parental leave is 100% paid

• Encourage parents to take equal parental leave