New research has shown why previous findings on fathers and remote work have conflicted.
New research from King's Business School and the University of Konstanz has found that remote working can support a more equal division of childcare in heterosexual couples, but only when men hold progressive gender role attitudes.
Using 13 years of data from Germany, the study finds that remote work only leads fathers to take on more childcare when they hold progressive views about gender roles. Where men believe domestic work is mainly a woman's job, remote work does not shift the balance and can even increase the burden on mothers.
Remote work has long been promoted as a way to improve work-life balance, yet new research from the Global Institute for Women's Leadership and University of Konstanz suggests that it can either reduce or reinforce gender inequality depending on parents' beliefs about gender roles.
Using data from the German Family Panel (2008-2021), the study published in the European Sociological Review, found that that women still carry the bulk of domestic work, doing around 70% of housework and childcare on average. But as remote work became more common, rising from one in ten parents before the pandemic to one-third of mothers and nearly half of fathers by 2021, it opened the door, at least in theory, to a fairer division of care.
In practice, the findings suggest that remote work alone cannot deliver equality at home. When mothers work remotely, women tend to shoulder even more childcare and housework, particularly when they hold traditional views about men's domestic responsibilities. When fathers work remotely and see domestic work as a shared responsibility, they tend to take on a greater share of it. Fathers who hold more traditional views do not show the same change.
The authors argue that encouraging more fathers to work from home could be part of a policy solution, but progress will be limited without efforts to challenge traditional expectations about men's domestic roles.
Remote work can be a great equaliser, but only in households where men see themselves as equal partners in care. Without a shift in social attitudes, flexible working risks entrenching gender divides. Well paid, earmarked paternity leave in a child's early years helps set expectations about who cares. Fathers increasingly want to take on this role. The question is whether governments will support them.
Professor Heejung Chung, Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership
Drawing on over a decade of data, including the COVID-19 pandemic when remote working expanded dramatically, our study highlights that structural policies such as the right to flexible work must be accompanied by efforts to challenge gender stereotypes, beginning with changing perceptions of men's roles in family life.
Dr Olga Leshchenko, University of Konstanz
To read the full paper, Telecommuting and Division of Domestic Work: the Role of Gender Role Attitudes in Germany, visit the journal website.
