The precarity of progress

Key findings

In our longitudinal study involving over 10,000 participants from more than 100 countries, we investigated how this shift was perceived and experienced by women and men.

We found that, while women and men alike noticed this change in the division of household labour, it was women who felt the pinch. Yet, how women experienced this shift depended on the level of economic gender equality within their home country.

In countries like Australia, where a gender pay gap persists but women and men typically enjoy similar economic opportunities and pay, women who noticed the shift toward more traditional roles reported poorer mental health and being less happy with their personal relationships. In contrast, in countries with much higher levels of economic gender inequality like India, women who noticed this traditional shift reported better mental health and being happier with their personal relationships. Men’s relationship satisfaction and mental health, however, was unaffected by the shift to a more traditional division of labour.

Taken together, our results demonstrate the gendered consequences of crises and the fragility of progress toward gender equality. Advancement is not guaranteed and there is an urgent need for gender-responsive and transformative policy and practice to safeguard gender equality in times of crisis.