Shifting Inequalities? Parents’ Sleep, Anxiety, and Calm during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia and the United States

Abstract

As a cultural ideal, hegemonic masculinity positions men as breadwinners in the gender order—a position that systematically benefits men and disadvantages women. Because economic success is key to performing masculinity (Connell 2005), the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout offer an opportunity to evaluate shifting gender dynamics amidst rapid changes in employment and domestic demands for heterosexual couples with children. Closures of schools, daycare facilities, and workplaces around the world shifted more paid and unpaid work into the home, leading journalists and academics to question whether the pandemic would be a catalyst to “un-stall” the gender revolution. Specifically, they wondered if men would take on more domestic work, generating a more equal gender division of household labor (Smith and Johnson 2020). In this essay, we argue that traditional gender roles were reinforced for U.S. parents but were eroded for Australian parents—with disparate consequences for their well-being during the first few months of the pandemic.