Corona & Care How the Corona-Crisis has affected Fathers ......Corona & Care How the Corona-Crisis has affected Fathers‘ Involvement in Germany Michaela Kreyenfeld (Hertie School)

Corona & Care

How the Corona-Crisis has affected Fathers‘ Involvement in Germany

Michaela Kreyenfeld (Hertie School)

Sabine Zinn (DIW Berlin)

Wittgenstein Centre Conference 2020, Demographic Aspects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and its Consequences, Virtual Vienna, 30-11-2020/1-12-2020

Parental Leave

Benefit Reform

Child Care

Reform

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 … 2020 2013

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

200

6

200

7

200

8

200

9

201

0

201

1

201

2

201

3

201

4

201

5

201

6

201

7

201

8

201

9

% Betreuung unter 3 Jahren % Väter in Elternzeit

East

West

% Children (<Age 3) în Day Care % Fathers on Parental Leave

Corona: Re-Traditionalisation of Gender Roles?

• The Corona-Crisis has resulted into a re-traditionalization

of care patterns and lead to an even more unequal

gendered division of care.

Corona: A Push for Gender Equality?

• The Corona-Crisis has affected male-dominated fields of

employment more strongly than women’s (BiB 2020).

• Particularly medium and lowly educated men were strongly

affected by short-work (IAB 2020). These men had more

time to engage with their children.

Prior Research

Authors Data Fieldwork

Kohlrausch & Zucco (2020) cross-sectional*) online: April 2020

Bünning, Hipp & Munnes (2020) cross-sectional*) online March-April 2020

Hank & Steinbach (2020) pairfam-panel online: May-July 2020

Zoch & Bächmann (2020) NEPS-panel online: May 2020

Kreyenfeld & Zinn (2020) SOEP-panel phone: March-June 2020

*) convenience sample

Authors Data Fieldwork

Kohlrausch & Zucco (2020) cross-sectional*) online: April 2020

Bünning, Hipp & Munnes (2020) cross-sectional*) online March-April 2020

Hank & Steinbach (2020) pairfam-panel online: May-July 2020

Zoch & Bächmann (2020) NEPS-panel online: May 2020

Kreyenfeld & Zinn (2020) SOEP-panel phone: March-June 2020

*) convenience sample

Data & Method

SOEP-COV

SOEP 2019 SOEP-Cov 2020

March 2020 May 2020

How does your working day look like? How many hours do you spend

on average on the following activities?

• Child care [Hours per Day]

Analytical Sample

• Women und men in partnerships with children ages 0-11

(Fathers: n=322; Mothers: n=603)

Method

• Linear Regression (Difference care work 2019 and 2020)

• Fixed-Effects Modell

Variables

• Education, East/West, migration, Age, number of children

• Employment status (time varying)

Descriptive Results

2.8

6.7

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Fathers Mothers

2019

Source: Kreyenfeld/Zinn 2020

Care Time (Hours per Day)

2.8

6.72.5

2.9

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Fathers Mothers

2019

2020

Source: Kreyenfeld/Zinn 2020

Care Time (Hours per Day)

Linear Regression:

Change between 2019 and 2020

Regression ResultsDep. Variable: Difference in care work 2020-2019

Method: Linear Regression

Displayed: Predicted values

0

1

2

3

4

5

0-2 3-5 6-11 Ost West Low Medium High

Age youngest child Region Education

Diffe

ren

ce

Ca

re W

ork

2020-2

019

Fathers

Mothers

Notes: Other variables in model are migration background, number of children 2019, employment status 2019, care time 2019

4.1

3.3

0

1

2

3

4

5

0-2 3-5 6-11 Ost West

Region

3.6

1.5

3.2

Notes: Other variables in model are migration background, number of children 2019, employment status 2019, care time 2019

Regression ResultsDep. Variable: Difference in care work 2020-2019

Method: Linear Regression

Displayed: Predicted values

Low Medium High

Age youngest child Education

Diffe

ren

ce

Ca

re W

ork

2020-2

019

Fathers

Mothers

Conclusion

Elevator-Effect:

• Mothers bore most of the child care burden during the lockdown.

• However, the ‚lockdown-increase‘ in child care time was similar for both gender.

Effect-Heterogeneity:

• Medium and lowly educated fathers have altered behaviour most strongly.

• Some of this change can probably be attributed to the increase in short-work (more

research needed here).

FINDINGS

LIMITATIONS

• We operated with small sample sizes. No distinction by

industry branch was possible.

• We only focused on couple households. The special

situation of lone and non-resident parents was not part of

this study.

• We only focused on time use by fathers and mothers and

did not study the division of care work.

• We relied on the subjective assessment of time use.

Thanks for your Attention!

2.4 2.33.6

6.9 7.25.9

4.03.8 0.6

2.93.1

2.7

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Low Medium High Low Medium High

Fathers Mütter

2019

2020

Source: Kreyenfeld/Zinn 2020

Care Time (Hours per Day)