Pandemic saw women do extra 173 hours of work in child care in 2020

Last year saw a paradigm shift in the daily life of families globally, and new research shows that living in coronavirus pandemic limbo has proven inequitable for some at home.

Women, in particular, bore the brunt of the child care workload in 2020 — an additional 173 hours of work without pay, a new report claims, compared to an extra 59 hours for men, as work and school were taken home indefinitely. In low and middle-income countries specifically, women took on an additional 217 hours of extra free labor, and men an added 70 hours.