Abstract
The stay-at-home orders associated with COVID-19 left many employees teleworking and increased the amount of unpaid care work within the home. Such disruptions have the potential to upend the gendered distribution of unpaid labor and radically change how people perform their paid jobs, particularly for dual-career households. This study investigates how the lockdown affected the gendered distribution of unpaid labor, job productivity, and job satisfaction. We conducted a real-time survey in May 2020 that yielded a sample of 920 respondents in cohabiting, opposite-sex partnerships in the U.S. Results showed that both men and women experienced an increase in the amount of unpaid work within the home during the pandemic relative to before, with women performing more. However, men’s increase in labor related to the care of elderly and disabled family members exceeded that of women. Regression results showed that as men took on more household labor, women reported a greater odds 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. These results have implications for perceptions of inequalities within organizations that may shift social norms related to the ideal worker.