France has long been known as a country where working parents are supported, with good family benefits and leave entitlements. But how good is the mental health of women who had full-time careers while bringing up a family in France? In this blog, Constance Beaufils of the National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris describes…
Tag: Gender
Were women’s domestic burdens eased by Covid-19 lockdowns? And will the pandemic have a lasting effect on household work-sharing?
In October 2020, WorkLife featured research from Baowen Xue and Anne McMunn showing how badly the pandemic was affecting the mental health of working parents, especially single mothers. The researchers expressed concerns over the reversal of pre-pandemic trends towards a more gender equal society and supported calls from the Women’s Budget Group for a care-led…
Youth unemployment and later mental ill-health: who is at risk?
The pandemic has brought links between unemployment and mental health to the fore. With joblessness having risen across the globe, new research looking at the longer-term effects is particularly timely. Liam Wright and colleagues from UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public health describe new research which could motivate efforts to target vulnerable groups and use…
Domestic work – why do women still do the lion’s share?
A recent international report suggests men need to increase their time spent doing unpaid care work by a minimum of 50 minutes per day in order to do 50 per cent of the work. The report calls for bold measures to help all men do their fair share of this work by 2030 and thus promote…
Can ‘nudge’ theory help extend working lives?
Government policy in the UK and other industrialised countries aims to increase the numbers of people staying on in work for longer – but there are significant differences between different groups. Can social and economic factors explain them? Or is there truth in the suggestion that some groups of workers are ‘resistant’ to staying in…
Work and family conflict: who is at risk?
Juggling the demands of work and family can create conflict and this can play out differently for men and women. But what other factors are at play? Do things like the sort of job we do and the levels of control we feel we have at work and at home matter too? It’s a subject…