Women are doing more housework and childcare than men during lockdown, study finds

The Office for National Statistic has found a disparity in the amount of housework being done between men and women in the last two months of lockdown.

According to the survey from The Office for National Statistic (ONS), men are doing more than an hour less of housework and childcare than women every day.

The study showed that overall British men have increased their unpaid labour, which includes essential tasks such as caring for children or adults and housework, from just 22 minutes in pre-lockdown to two hours and 25 minutes a day during the lockdown.

This is one hour and seven minutes less than women, despite the average time spent by British women falling by 20 minutes in lockdown. 

The average woman is now spending three hours and 32 minutes on unpaid labour daily. 

The data comes from The ONS Time Use survey, which takes into account the time between March 28th and April 26th 2020. 

The survey concluded that time spent by parents on childcare, including activities like feeding, washing and helping with homework has risen by more than a third during lockdown. Adding to this is a decline by 90% of grandparents providing care before lockdown, equating to 1 hour and 45 minutes per week.

The study shows that not all households are experiencing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the same way. 

Gueorguie Vassilev of the ONS said: “It will be interesting to see if time use reverts to a pre-pandemic pattern after this crisis is over, or if some changes will be lasting ones.”