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Working Mothers Remote Working COVID-19

Damning home working report finds fathers are progressing at the expense of mothers

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By John Glenday, Reporter

November 10, 2021 | 4 min read

A new study has shown the inherent advantage male parents have during remote work.

Mother and children

41% of mothers stated that they had taken on more responsibilities at home

Born out of a realization that men are being promoted even as women are professionally regressing, the damning report highlights how it is mothers who are most likely to have lost or left their job since the onset of the pandemic.

The project also found that those women who remain employed are more likely to work from home and shoulder a heavier burden of day-to-day tasks than their male colleagues.

Who is involved?

  • Addressing this discrepancy, Manhattan-based agency Berlin Cameron, together with Kantar and Forbes, have teamed up with the membership-based career platform Luminary and data provider Action Button to redress the imbalance.

  • Together the partners have drilled into the societal shifts precipitated by the pandemic, principally around the diverging impact on the mental health of mothers and fathers.

Stress is up across the board

  • Work was the main source of stress among parents of both sexes, but it is mothers who bear the brunt of childcare and at-home schooling who feel it most, with 18% citing employment as their biggest stressor.

  • In unsettled times, unsurprisingly mothers and fathers share concerns over job security, with 28% worried about having stalled in their careers during the lockdown.

Gender disparity

  • Diverging fortunes are attributed to mothers shouldering the majority of household chores, with 41% stating that they had taken on more responsibilities at home – even as 72% of fathers felt they shared duties equally in our more enlightened age.

  • Another point of divergence is the return of more men to the office, with 45% of males heading to work more than their partner. Just 19% reported that both they and their significant other were working remotely full-time.

  • All this is taking its toll on mental health, with 65% of working mothers taking a mental health day versus 54% of working fathers.

Mothers shy away from help

  • Despite these issues, the vast majority of mothers (70%) refuse to seek help at work, with 25% stating that ‘it’s not my coworker’s responsibility.’ A further 18% felt uncomfortable discussing their feelings.

  • This translates to 41% of working mothers electing to suppress their emotions while at work, as opposed to 13% of working fathers.

  • This is attributed to 30% of working mothers believing that showing emotion in the workplace may hinder their career advancement, versus 21% of fathers who feel this way.

  • On the flip side, 43% of men stated that they were displaying more emotion in the home amid the global upheaval.

Methodology

  • The survey took responses from 1,000 working mothers and fathers to arrive at its findings, which threaten to undo recent progress in tackling sexism within the workplace.

Working Mothers Remote Working COVID-19

Content created with:

Berlin Cameron

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