In the confinement caused by Covid-19 and experienced during the spring of 2020, women have teleworked more than men, have made their schedules more flexible and consider that in most couples there has been no equality in the distribution of household chores.
The Generalitat de Catalunya has promoted the Plan Viure Millor this 2020. This initiative is the transition to the Pact for Time Reform and has the implementation of a series of actions to achieve the commitments established by the Pact.
Thus, the Plan Viure Millor aims to be a dynamic document, not only in terms of the measures to be incorporated but also because it undertakes to provide indicators for monitoring and budgeting.
In this line, the Center for Opinion Studies has published a Survey on the uses of time and confinement in order to measure the impact of the health crisis of Covid-19 with its consequent confinement of the population and the uses of time.
The survey shows socio-demographic data disaggregated by gender, age, origin as well as other criteria such as professional status or level of education. The study analyzes the health status of participants, their daily habits during confinement, the relationship with distance work, the distribution of domestic and family work, as well as refers to gender-based violence during confinement and reflections on the future.
As for the uses of time, telework and co-responsibility in the context of the pandemic, the figures speak for themselves. The data draw a confinement in which:
TELEWORK AND TIME FLEXIBILITY
• Women have worked harder than men, as the sectors with the highest demand during the pandemic are highly feminized: care, direct care, health, trade.
• Men have a greater tendency to work remotely and face-to-face combined (18%) while women only combine in 10.9%.
• 52.4% of women have teleworked while in the case of men 38.4% have done so.
• Both men (60.1%) and women (62.1%) consider telework combined with face-to-face work to be a good way to organize work.
• 66% of women made their working hours more flexible, compared to 60.9% of men.
• 30.1% of women say they worked more hours during confinement, while only 21.5% of men did so.
CORRESPONSIBILITY
• Both men and women value teleworking as a positive tool for reconciliation.
• 42.6% of men consider that the distribution of household chores is equal, while only 27.1% of women think the same.
• 75.3% of men consider that there was co-responsibility in the couple during confinement, while only 54.2% of women think the same.
• There is a different perception of what is meant by domestic “collaborative work”.
The study also shows a technological and digital gender gap, as men tend to have more access to technological tools. The survey also highlights the importance of incorporating, beyond the gender perspective, the time perspective and reorganizing people’s working time.