AS THE CRISIS IN THE BUSINESS sector occupies Congress, the quieter crisis in many U.S. homes goes largely unnoticed. In theory, all parents of young children must now navigate a world without schools and daycare. But, in practice, the heaviest burden falls on mothers, especially single ones, who face a near-impossible choice between caring for their children and staying afloat financially.
Despite some progress toward gender equality, mothers in different-sex couples still do the lion’s share of childcare. Most mothers, even those with babies and toddlers, now hold paid jobs, but even so, mothers bear the heaviest burden. They not only do the greater share of hands-on care, but they also tend to take on what we might call child management: the work of arranging for childcare and filling in when those arrangements fall through. When the babysitter is sick, the daycare is closed, or school vacation rolls around, it is primarily mothers who must scramble for alternatives-or sacrifice their own work to stay at home. These dynamics persist even when both mothers and fathers work full time. Women also take on the greatest load of caring for elderly family members and for people who are sick-including COVID-19 victims.
We can hope that the pandemic will actually help equalize parenting roles, at least in two-parent families. With both mom and dad on site 24/7, perhaps they will hash out a more egalitarian division of labor. But that rosy scenario must be balanced against the reality that married mothers in different-sex couples tend to have lower-paid and lower-status jobs. Even with the best of intentions, couples may find that the economic threat of the pandemic intensifies the personal, professional, and social dynamics that lead couples to give priority to the father’s job and working time over the mother’s.