Couples in Lockdown: « La vie en rose »?

Stay-at-home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic challenged household members who faced forced cohabitation and increased housework (domestic chores and childcare). Based on individual data collected online from partnered women during the spring 2020 in France, we study the lockdown effects on housework division and conflicts between partners. We find that during the lockdown, couples experienced minor changes in the allocation of housework, mainly carried out by women. Simultaneously, men increased their participation in the production of household goods mainly through “enjoyable” or “quasi-leisure” activities. Our results suggest that the gendered connotation of domestic work can be context-dependent and not stable over time. Tensions between partners, reported by women, increased during the lockdown, and appear to be strongly correlated with an unequal division of housework. Overall, our results suggest that this period did not structurally affect the gender stereotypes at home.