Digital literacy and female family care: An empirical study based on CFPS

The development of the digital economy has brought significant changes to family care. Women, as the main body of family care, have been more deeply affected, and the extent of the impact depends on the individual's digital literacy level. Using the data of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper analyzes the effect and mechanism of female digital literacy on their family care. The study shows that digital literacy significantly reduces women's housework hours, increases the frequency of taking care of parents, but has no significant impact on the probability of women taking care of children. At the same time, digital literacy reduces the burden of household chores for married women to a greater extent, and alleviates marriage penalty. Further, this paper verifies that the impact of digital literacy on female family care is achieved through improving economic status, enhancing autonomy awareness and optimizing time allocation, and alleviates motherhood penalty at these three levels.