Responding to ONS data: How people spent their time after the March 2020 coronavirus lockdown

WBG Director Mary- Ann Stephenson responds to ONS data which shows how people spent their time after the March 2020 coronavirus lockdown:

“One of the hopes earlier in the pandemic was that the increase in unpaid work done by men would mark the start of a longer term move towards greater sharing of this work. Sadly it looks like we are returning quickly to pre-lockdown patterns with women doing 64% more housework and nearly twice as much childcare as men. Women’s unpaid work is at the heart of their economic inequality. Time spent on unpaid work means less time for paid work, so women earn less, own less and are more likely to be poor. Coronavirus has shown us that the economy is not working but for women the economy has never really worked and this pandemic has highlighted the brunt of unpaid work that women do daily. We can no longer continue this way and expect that women will just bear the brunt. We are the economy and it’s time the economy worked for us.”