During the Covid pandemic, many families were faced with the inevitable choice to go from being dual-income to single-income. Stereotypically, this role has been performed by the male in the household, but there are a growing number of households where the woman is the primary earner.

Research from the University of Melbourne explores how families coped when female breadwinners lost their income during the pandemic. The study found that female breadwinners were more likely to lose their income than their male counterparts, although the ability to work remotely reduced this risk considerably.

Losing income

The researchers used data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey to track employment during the pandemic.

The results show that men tended to stay employed during the pandemic far more than women, whose employment rate fell significantly at the start of the pandemic and didn’t really recover. What’s more, it didn’t seem to matter if the women were the primary earners or not.

Being the breadwinner didn’t provide any protection for these women, but the option of working remotely did appear to. The study found that when women could work online, their employment rates were much higher than for those who could not. Indeed, the boost provided by remote work was found to be roughly four times greater for women than for men.

No shield

While it was previously thought that being the primary breadwinner in a household might provide some kind of shield against unemployment. These findings highlight that this isn’t always the case.

The researchers believe that one’s income is less important than who would be expected to provide care. This is evidenced by the return to pre-pandemic employment levels now seen by mothers in the US. During Covid, it was well documented that women performed more domestic duties, even when both parents worked from home.

For people who can work from home, like those in professional jobs, remote work has been a lifeline, helping them keep their jobs. However, some employers are now pushing for a return to the office.

The pandemic has shown how important care work is in our lives, and we should support those who do it. For married heterosexual mothers, this means recognizing how hard the pandemic has been on them and making sure they have the option to work from home if their job allows it.