 Couples' changing work patterns in the United Kingdom and the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemicYue Qian and Yang Hu Gender, Work and Organization, 2021, vol. 28, issue S2, 535-553 Abstract: Going beyond a focus on individual‐level employment outcomes, we investigate couples' changing work patterns in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Analyzing longitudinal panels of 2186 couples from the Understanding Society COVID‐19 Survey (UK) and 2718 couples from the Current Population Survey (US), we assess whether the pandemic has elevated the importance of human capital vis‐à‐vis traditional gender specialization in shaping couples' work patterns. The UK witnessed a notable increase in sole‐worker families with the better‐educated partner working, irrespective of gender. The impact of the pandemic was similar but weaker in the US. In both countries, couples at the bottom 25% of the prepandemic family income distribution experienced the greatest increase in neither partner working but the least growth in sole‐worker arrangements. Through a couple‐level analysis of changing employment patterns, this study highlights the importance of human capital in shaping couples' paid‐work organization during the pandemic, and it reveals the socioeconomic gradient in such organization. Date: 2021 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:gender:v:28:y:2021:i:s2:p:535-553 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Gender, Work and Organization is currently edited by David Knights, Deborah Kerfoot and Ida Sabelis More articles in Gender, Work and Organization from Wiley Blackwell |
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