Parents in the Pandemic: Comparison of Employment Changes and Effect of Covid School Closures on Working Parents

The pandemic continues to have a more severe impact on women in terms of non-employment and reduced hours worked. This answers one of my research questions regarding the recovery of mothers versus fathers, compared to what previous studies have found. The levels of unemployment have certainly decreased as expected, but for mothers’ employment levels remain lower than their counterparts. The same goes for hours worked; reduced hours worked could have important implications for further progress as well. If mothers continue to cut back hours, this could affect career progression and job attachment. The long-term effects of these factors are unknown, but it seems likely there are affects we have yet to fully understand. School learning models did not have a significant effect on the dependent variables as I initially anticipated. This may be a limitation of specifying the data, and whether or not the child is attending a school with the learning model mandated by the districts. Nonetheless, I believe that there is evidence to show that within the household, traditional gender dynamics have affected the employment situation of mothers versus fathers. This is another effect on the robust list of ways in which the pandemic recession has been and continues to be unprecedented