Mothers have done most of the care work during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study.
However, fathers were more involved in childcare, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, as a study by the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) published in Nuremberg on Tuesday shows.
The men would have looked after the offspring above all in those households in which the women had worked more than 20 hours outside the home and had not had the opportunity to work in the home office.
According to the announcement, the proportion of mothers who almost completely or mainly took on childcare before the Covid 19 pandemic remained almost unchanged in June 2020 during the Corona crisis.
It fell by just 2 percentage points to 64.2 percent.
The corresponding proportion of fathers, on the other hand, doubled to 10.5 percent in the same period.
Fathers were also more involved than before in housework, shopping and home repair work during the pandemic, even if the changes in the division of care work were very small in some areas.
The scientists come to the conclusion that the inequality in the distribution of gainful employment and care work between men and women was still high during the first year of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, the participation of fathers in childcare at 9.7 percent in August 2020 was higher than before the Covid 19 pandemic.
"The falling proportion of fathers doing care work suggests that the observed increase in their commitment was born out of necessity and that it is likely to decrease again when the situation normalizes," explained Dana Müller.
The head of the research data center of the Federal Employment Agency in the IAB pointed out that measures such as working from home and short-time work had created time resources that enabled fathers to participate more in care work.