Challenging Gender Roles during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Employed Palestinian-Arab Mothers in Israel

Abstract During the economic lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19, the demand for unpaid work at home increased. Drawing on gender theory and the time availability explanation, this article explores the way changes in family and work arrangements altered the division of housework and care work in a highly gendered society; Palestinian-Arab dual-earner families in Israel. In-depth interviews with 28 Palestinian-Arab women were conducted to explore the social forces underlying the gendered aspects of family-work arrangements in Palestinian-Arab families in Israel during the pandemic. The findings provide evidence that both undoing and doing gender are observed, with the latter prevailing, leading to an intensification of gender inequalities. This suggests that changes in time availability do not guarantee an egalitarian division of unpaid work because cultural models are the main drivers, emphasizing the cultural context’s importance in understanding the way families arrange their household demands.