When Gender Kicks In: An Experimental Study of Work from Home and Attitudes to Household Work and Childcare

Andreas Kotsadam (), Mette Løvgren, Nicolas Moreau (), Elena G. F. Stancanelli () and Arthur van Soest ()
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Andreas Kotsadam: Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research
Mette Løvgren: Oslo Metropolitan University
Nicolas Moreau: Université de la Réunion
Elena G. F. Stancanelli: Paris School of Economics
Arthur van Soest: Tilburg University

No 18324, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study how working from home links to gendered attitudes about household work and childcare. Using a vignette experiment embedded in a regular Dutch population representative survey, we randomly vary the gender of the partner working from home in a hypothetical dual-earner couple. When presented with various routine and emergency chores, respondents, on average, agree that the partner working from home should execute them. These effects are significantly larger when the vignette randomly depicts a man, rather than a woman, working from home, but these gender differences in respondents’ expectations vanish in a scenario where no partner works from home. All in all, the evidence gathered indicates that Work from Home may blast rather than boost gender norms around household work and childcare.

Keywords: gender norms; household work; work from home; vignette (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D83 J16 J22 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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