For the research carried out, on which this article is based, the author analysed data obtained from the module on work-life balance of the Labour Force Survey (Encuesta de Población Activa, EPA, 2018), more specifically, those relating to workers aged 25 to 49.

In Spain, 22.9% of women working part-time are engaged in this type of employment in order to look after their children or dependent adults, whereas only 2.7% of men who work part-time do so for this reason (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, 2018). Furthermore, men tend to take shorter periods of leave for childcare than women: only 13.1% of men request leave of more than six months, whereas half of women take off more than that time. From 2010 to 2018, the percentage of women who asked for long periods off work to look after their children fell slightly, although men too show a tendency to shorten parental leave (graph 1). From this point of view, the most recent data do not lead to the conclusion that gender gap is getting any narrower in this respect.The time men and women spend looking after their children is important, both for the effects it generates on the cognitive and emotional development of the children (Cano et al., 2019) and for the effects it has on men’s and women’s work status. In the latter respect, there is abundant evidence (see, for example, Kleven et al., 2019) that part of the gender wage gap is explained by the fact that mothers interrupt their careers more than fathers do, and are more likely to request a reduction in working hours for reasons of work-life balance.

However, the general figures on childcare leave taken by men and women do not explain why there are gender differences in care. In this regard, the research conducted sheds light on an important mechanism that generates differences between employed mothers and fathers: the unequal time they spend looking after their children. To this end, the evolution of time spent by fathers and mothers on childcare is analysed, taking into account not only the parents’ employment status but also the children’s different age groups.

During the Great Recession that began in 2008 there was an increase in the time parents spent looking after their children, both physically (men 13 minutes more per day on average; women 4 minutes more) and educationally (men 7 minutes more per day on average; women 9 minutes more). In other words, there was an increase in both the time spent feeding, dressing or changing children or putting them to bed (physical care) and the time spent playing or reading with them or helping them with their homework (educational care).

The time fathers spent on the physical care of their children increased more than that spent by mothers, and therefore the gender gap in this type of care narrowed. The increase was especially notable among unemployed fathers, for whom the gender gap in care was reduced by half.

Whereas before the crisis unemployed mothers looked after their children an hour more per day than men in the same situation, during the crisis the difference was only half an hour on average. The change was due basically to the unemployed rather than the inactive, who showed no change between years.

The narrowing of the gender gap in childcare was most notable among parents with children under three years of age. At these ages (0-3) the average time fathers spent on childcare increased significantly, while among mothers it dropped slightly. Overall, for couples with children aged under three, the gender gap in physical care time narrowed by half an hour per day.

No gender gap can be observed in educational care, so it is not tenable to talk of gender inequality (see graph 2): fathers and mothers devote almost the same amount of time to this type of care, which in principle may require fewer hours and may be more flexible time-wise than physical care.


 

The increase in the time men spend looking after their children is explained by a combination of factors that may be related both to changes in their educational characteristics and employment status and also to other aspects attributable to changes in behaviour or attitudes towards fatherhood. Discerning which part of the change is explained by modifications in individual characteristics and which part can be attributed to attitudes is another of the objectives of the research on which this article is based.

The conclusion reached is that most of the increase in fathers’ childcare time (between 58% and 62%, depending on whether the variable analysed is physical or educational care) is attributable to changes in behaviour and attitudes towards care by men. The remaining 38-42% can be attributed to changes in their characteristics, i.e., having a higher educational level and being more affected by unemployment.

 

During the covid-19 health crisis, the Spanish government has taken tough measures at all levels. These included, during the state of alarm, the obligation to stay at home, except for workers in essential jobs. This situation has led to a sudden and unprecedented rise in childcare needs in households with children. If a time use survey were conducted in 2020, an unprecedented rise would undoubtedly be found in the time fathers and mothers alike have devoted to their children. The crux is whether this crisis will bring greater gender equality in childcare, as happened during the Great Recession. In other words, the key question is to what extent fathers are increasing their care practices during the coronavirus health crisis, and if so, whether this change has come to stay.

No representative state level data are available at present to measure the impact of the covid-19 crisis on time devoted to children, but a couple of hypotheses can be advanced. First, that the greatest gender equalising potential in childcare occurring in this crisis may arise in those couples in which the woman is a key worker (e.g., a health worker) and had to go to work during the lockdown, but the man had to stay at home. In such couples it can assumed that the father became the main caregiver (at least during his partner’s working hours). The second hypothesis is that, in such households, children would have been exposed to an increase in paternal involvement in care, which may alter their present and future perceptions and gender roles in the direction of greater equality. The magnitude of this “forced” increase in the time fathers devote to childcare, and whether it has come to stay, remains to be seen over the years to come.

The time use surveys on which the research is based (conducted in the years 2002-2003 and 2009-2010) provide a wealth of information about the time spent doing various activities. In both cases, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics was the agency responsible for conducting them, following a design harmonised by Eurostat throughout the European Union (for further details, see INE, 2011). The time devoted to each activity is recorded in an exhaustive diary of activities (or time use diary) which each person completes chronologically according to the sequence and duration of all the activities he or she carries out during the day. The analyses of this research are restricted to heterosexual couples who live with at least one child of up to 13 years of age, which yields a total sample of 5,566 couples.

Physical care includes activities such as feeding children, changing their clothes, dressing them, bathing them, putting them to bed, cradling them, getting them out of bed, or looking after them when they are ill. Educational care refers to activities such as helping children with their homework or reading, playing or talking with them.

This research analyses time trends in care given by fathers and mothers, comparing economic boom years (2002) with economic recession years (2010), making a distinction between two types of care (physical and educational) and analysing changes in the gender gap according to the couple’s employment status and the age of their children.

The results show two things. First, that in comparison with 2002, in 2010 there was a notable increase in the time mothers and – even more so – fathers devoted to their children. As a consequence of this, secondly, over this period a marked reduction took place in the gender care gap in couples with children under three years of age. This increase in the care time given by men is the result of a combination of factors: first, changes in the characteristics of the fathers (having a higher educational level and being more affected by unemployment); and second and to a much greater extent, it is attributed to changes in behaviour and attitudes towards care by men. However, it is important to emphasise that the gender gap in physical care (an inflexible type of care as regards time, and as such, one that has a more negative impact on career development) is still open.

CANO, T. (2019): “Changes in fathers’ and mothers’ time with children: Spain, 2002−2010”, European Sociological Review, 35, 616-635.

CANO, T., F. PERALES and J. BAXTER (2019): “A matter of time: Father involvement and child cognitive outcomes”, Journal of Marriage and Family, 81, 164-184.

INE (2011): Encuesta de Empleo del Tiempo. Metodología. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de Estadística.

KLEVEN, H., C. LANDAIS, J. POSCH, A. STEINHAUER and J. ZWEIMULLER (2019): “Child penalties across countries: Evidence and explanations”, AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 122-126.