Women much more likely to say they were responsible for childcare during lockdown

Our latest research amongst people in Britain has found that among parents, women are much more likely to say that they were the ones most responsible for childcare or home schooling when schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic than men, with 71% saying so compared to 26% of men. 

However, our study also found that almost two thirds of Britons (64%) say that they believe that childcare should be equally shared when there are two working parents at home. 
 
The research also asked all adults, not just parents, if the amount of household chores they undertake such as childcare, cleaning, cooking or food shopping had changed during the COVID-19 lockdowns. One in four (25%) people said that ‘I do more of this than I did before’, with women being more likely to say so than men (27% vs 22%).  
 
Younger people were also more likely to say they were doing more chores than before than middle aged and older people - 32% of 18-24 year olds and 40% of 25-34 year olds vs 29% of 35-44, 23% 45-54, 14% 55-64 and 16% 65+. 

Methodological Information 

A total of 1,114 interviews were conducted online among adults living in Great Britain between the 18th and 22nd February 2021. All interviews were conducted as online self-completion. The Kantar online access panel was the main sample source.  
 
The data was weighted to match population totals for age, gender, 2019 General Election voting patterns, 2016 EU referendum voting patterns, education, region, and likelihood to vote in the next General Election. Any use of this research must cite Kantar as the source

This Britain Baromater was issued under our former global brand name: Kantar Public.