Carrying the Domestic Burden of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Gender, Class and the Domestic Division of Labour

This article explores gender and class inequalities in the domestic division of labour in the UK. Inequalities in housework and caring are important: they shape who can enter the paid workforce and on what terms, impacting career progression, financial security, work–life balance and well-being. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew women shouldered the heaviest burden of housework and caring, but far less was known about class variation among workers. The pandemic intensified housework and caring but it also provided opportunities for a re-evaluation of established practices. Drawing on secondary analysis of data from working-age employees in the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we find gender remained pivotal in shaping domestic working and childcaring, but women and men were living differently classed pandemic lives. The article contributes to interlinking sociological debates about the unpaid essential work within the home, women and men’s working lives during times of turbulence and class inequalities therein.