Abstract
The stay-at-home orders associated with COVID-19 left many employees working from home, and they increased the amount of unpaid care work within the home. Such disruptions had the potential to upend the gendered distribution of unpaid labor and radically change how people perform unpaid work. This study investigates how the lockdown affected the gendered distribution of unpaid labor, job productivity, and job satisfaction in the United States. We conducted real-time surveys in May 2020 and March 2021 that yielded a sample of 920 respondents in cohabiting, opposite-gender partnerships in the U.S. in 2020 and 1,032 respondents in 2021. Results show that women performed more unpaid work during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic. In both periods women did more unpaid work than men although women and men both experienced an increase in the amount of unpaid work during the pandemic. Regression results showed that as men took on more household labor, women reported a greater likelihood of being more productive in and satisfied with their paid jobs. Men’s job productivity and satisfaction were unaffected by women’s increased contributions to household labor during the pandemic.