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Eine Maschinenbauerin und ein Maschinenbauer untersuchen und steuern einen Roboterarm (refer to: Working hours per capita at record high – increase driven by women) | Source: © gumpapa/stock.adobe.com

Press releaseWorking hours per capita at record high – increase driven by women

The number of hours worked per capita in Germany has risen sharply in recent years. At just under 29 hours per week, it is at its highest level since reunification. The increase is particularly attributable to women.

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Peer-Reviewed Articles in Scientific JournalsThe gender division of unpaid care work throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

Jessen, Jonas; Spieß, C. Katharina; Wraights, Sevrin; Wrohlich, Katharina (2022)

German-Economic Review 23(4). Berlin: De Gruyter: 641–667

DOI: 10.1515/ger-2022-0003

The COVID-19 pandemic and related closures of day care centres and schools significantly increased the amount of care work done by parents. There has been much speculation over whether the pandemic increased or decreased gender equality in parental care work. Based on representative data for Germany from spring 2020 and winter 2021 we present an empirical analysis that shows that although gender inequality in the division of care work increased to some extent in the beginning of the pandemic, it returned to the pre-pandemic level in the second lockdown almost nine months later. These results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic neither aggravated nor lessened inequality in the division of unpaid care work among mothers and fathers in any persistent way in Germany.