Hello
We thought you might be interested in the results of a survey we carried out recently which has been covered in The Guardian today.
We asked 1200+ women on Mumsnet what they thought about sex equality in the UK over the past year and how it had been affected by the pandemic. 56% of them agreed that ‘when it comes to women’s place in work, the home and in society, we’re in danger of going back to the 1970s’. Even more starkly, half (49%) think gender/sex equality will regress over the next few years, while only 32% think it will improve.
69% say they are worried about the long-term impact of COVID on women’s employment and seniority at work. Of those women with caring responsibilities, 28% say their responsibilities have affected their professional reputation during the past year. 24% are considering leaving the workforce entirely, while a further 22% are considering becoming self-employed.
At home the picture is even more bleak, with the weight for almost all common domestic tasks falling squarely on women’s shoulders. Here are the %s of women living with a male partner who say they do all or most of the following common domestic tasks:
laundry: 73%
home schooling: 70%
healthcare appointments: 69%
life admin: 64%
food shopping: 62%
cleaning and tidying up: 61%
childcare outside school hours: 60%
cooking: 60%
48% said they shared children’s bath-and-bed routines equally with their partner. The only task that most (51%) said fell mostly to their male partners was emptying the bins.
There were a few positives though. 70% say their employer is now more open to working from home and flexible working than they were before. 50% say their partner would like to work from home more, or work more flexibly, in the future, and 5% say their partner is actively considering changing jobs or reducing their hours to spend more time with the children – rising to 12% in the under-35 age group.
Hope this is interesting reading on what will be back-to-school day for lots of your children. As ever do let us know what you think and please feel free to share our Tweet about this if you're so inclined (posts will be going up on Insta and FB too).
Thanks
MNHQ