Gendered Household Responsibilities in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from India

Rimon Saha, Ladenla Lama and Namrata Thapa

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2026, vol. 33, issue 1, 7-25

Abstract: The article studies the division of household work before and during the complete lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It also examines the influence of individual and household characteristics on the division of work, exploring, in particular, the relationship between family composition and the pattern of sharing household responsibilities during the lockdown. Data was collected from 156 married employed women through an online survey. The analysis shows that, irrespective of the lockdown, the burden on women is higher. The lockdown merely intensified this burden as the services of the domestic help were restricted. The division of household responsibilities is relatively unfair for women in joint families or families with dependents, compared to nuclear families and families without dependents. Traditional gender roles seem to overpower all other factors, including the education and earning capacity of women, to ensure an unfair division of household work, negating the relative resources theory. This could have wide-reaching implications for gender equality and the well-being and productivity of women.

Keywords: Gender inequalities; women’s empowerment; household responsibilities; COVID-19 pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indgen:v:33:y:2026:i:1:p:7-25

DOI: 10.1177/09715215251404260

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