Telecommuting and division of domestic work: the role of gender role attitudes in Germany

Abstract Telecommuting is often portrayed as a work-life balance measure. Though, in theory, telecommuting can provide workers with more time for leisure and family, due to the boundary blurring between work and life spheres, it can exacerbate gender inequalities by pushing women to carry out more domestic work while increasing men’s time in paid work. Empirically, the evidence is mixed. We extend the debate by exploring how individuals’ gender role attitudes (GRA) moderate the relationship between telecommuting and the division of domestic work. We apply hybrid models to the German Family Panel data. The data covers the timespan from 2008 to 2021, which includes the unique COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that GRA matter. When getting access to telecommuting, egalitarian men increased their contribution to childcare, while traditional men did not. Similarly, telecommuting traditional women increased their childcare contribution. The pattern remained the same during the expansion of telecommuting due to the COVID-19 pandemic: only telecommuting traditional women and telecommuting egalitarian men increased their childcare contribution. The results of this study suggest that telecommuting has the potential to serve as a ‘great equaliser’. However, achieving this requires actively promoting more egalitarian views on gender roles.