Exploring gender disparities in working hours: The impact of contract type and childcare responsibility during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented labour-market shock, resulting in substantial reductions in working hours. This study examines gender disparities in working hours during the pandemic, with particular emphasis on the roles of childcare responsibilities and employment contract type. Results from system generalised method of moments (GMMs) and complementary panel-data models applied to longitudinal datasets from Australia and the US reveal a modest narrowing of the gender gap. Before the pandemic, women worked on average 1.64 fewer hours per week than men in Australia and 1.04 fewer hours in the US. However, reductions in working hours during the pandemic were smaller for women than for men, by approximately 0.60 hours in Australia and 0.56 hours in the US, indicating partial convergence in working hours and providing limited support for the widely discussed ‘shecession’ narrative. Childless women largely maintained their working hours during the pandemic, whereas mothers experienced noticeable reductions (about 0.32 hours in Australia and an hour in the US). In contrast, part-time employment appears to have buffered working-hour disruptions. Part-time women experienced modest increases in working hours (0.34 hours in Australia and 2.22 hours in the US) relative to their pre-pandemic levels, while full-time workers experienced more noticeable reductions. These findings highlight the complex interplay of gender, contract type, and childcare in shaping working hours during crises. By showing that part-time arrangements can cushion working-hour disruptions for women while childcare responsibilities continue to constrain mothers, the study provides new cross-national evidence on gendered working-hour dynamics in the post-pandemic era.