The return of the double shift: A feminist’s reflection on a year in lockdown

By Danielle Dickinson (She/Her)

The current pandemic has certainly brought about colossal change for us all. The whole fabric of society has been tested by lockdown after lockdown, putting people’s economic interests, sociability and futures at a stalemate. Whilst some of these changes, on the surface, may seem justifiable or rudimentary, some have been socially constructed by dominant groups and have had disproportionate adversities for women, but why?

Women have historically been the caregivers and housekeepers among family units and whilst this ‘50’s good housewife trope’ has started to be dismantled, it seems to re-establish itself when unforeseen circumstances reveal themselves. Feminists are beginning to see that this lockdown, like post-war Britain, is demanding the need for much more support within families, and as a result, these extra roles are falling to women, thus causing them to take on additional duties which they cannot manage.

The ‘double shift’ theory and its relevance today:

The double shift, also known as the second shift or ‘dual burden’ was a term coined during the second wave feminist movement by Arlie Hochschild [1]. It refers to the ways in which women were burdened by both domestic work and their new-found role in the employable workforce, unlike their husbands, fathers and sons who were commonly still viewed as the ‘breadwinners’ so had little to contribute in terms of domesticities. The theory has since been developed to include the additional factor of emotional support and scholars have called this the ‘triple shift’ [2]. At this time, it was extremely hard to challenge this in-balance due to the joint effort of women everywhere to prove themselves as competent in work. So, like women have throughout history, they endured.

The work of these second-wave feminist scholars is so crucial to understanding this pandemic and a return to women in the private sphere. Evidence shows that working from home has led to the need for much more domestic attention and in turn, increased housework load has accosted women with this burden disproportionately [3]. Within single parent families, this statistic is even more damaging, due to the feminisation of single parenthood and it is virtually impossible for single mothers to balance fulltime work childcare, so many have lost their jobs due to this pandemic [4]. We also cannot forget the emotional support which tends to fall on women or this ‘triple shift.’ We have seen the destructiveness of lockdown on everyone’s mental state, and women are commonly expected to help pick up the pieces. It is an expectation of women to exhibit unconditional kindness, warmth and love and this is for one, unrealistic, but secondly, maintains women’s position as caregivers.

This issue is just as relevant for young women as it is for their mothers and grandmothers, with research showing that girls are doing more housework than boys during the pandemic and this shows that this toxic culture is being transmitted and reproduced to the next generation. Reports conducted by the Guardian earlier this month show that young women and girls are spending more time cooking for their families, cleaning, shopping and looking after siblings compared to their male counterparts [5]. Feminists have spent generations been protesting for the next generation of young girls and them not experiencing patriarchy like they did. But, these statistics show that the burden will always fall to women, whether they are eight years old, or eighty, the expectations are unwavering.

But, what can we do to change this outdated and oppressive system?

Narrative matters:

How much does the way we speak about gender roles, have to do with the outcomes for women? Short answer: a lot. In reality, if women are told from a young age to tend to certain needs, it becomes natural to them. This causes huge issues as there is a dominant discourse of men ‘helping with the chores’ or ‘helping with childcare’ which presents domestic work as a women’s job. This just creates a false image that it is not their role and they are doing something outstanding. If we are maintaining this narrative that men washing dishes or watching their own children is in any way remarkable or praiseworthy then we are playing in to patriarchy.

This narrative actually correlates closely to the narrative of the workplace. Men hold dominance in these spaces, so their overcompensation is normally met with praise, whereas women who take pride in career are continuously made to feel guilty for not being a good mother or wife. The issue with this (apart from the blatant misogyny) is that men are being paid for their praised hard work but women are not being paid for their domestic work.

Is flexibility at work the answer?

Most employers have been urged to be more flexible in the past year in order to accommodate their staff. Whilst there are certainly benefits to this for working parents, flexibility cannot solve the deep-rooted patriarchy within families. Flexible office hours are in fact, found to be more favourable for men but actually lead to greater dissatisfaction among women [6]. This is ultimately because women’s responsibility for childcare and other family commitments cause the feeling of being trapped in a restrictive-flexible cycle, whereas men usually have more free time for leisure activities. Thus, women (particularly mothers) cannot win. Sure, there are notable cases of employers allowing women to be flexible in a way which actually works for them, but this cannot be sufficient if we are striving for equality.

In order for real change, the 40-hour work week needs to be challenged. It is an outdated schedule which was constructed for a two-parent nuclear family where the mother would stay at home, so if we really want to liberate women in work as well as men, this structure needs to be modified. Everyone is encouraged to give in to this insane culture of working until we are sick, and not even stopping then. Any time away from work is weakness; for women, this ‘work till I’m dead’ ethic is even more crucial if you want to get ahead. So, in order to establish a healthy work-life balance for women and men, we need to change this outdated culture.

Closing remarks:

So, why are women really feeling the brunt of this lockdown? Is this because the conditions have forced everyone to work harder due to lockdown and women unfortunately have taken on a lot of work? Or is it because women’s position hasn’t drastically changed since the 1950’s and this pandemic has merely revealed this?

We shouldn’t see this as an issue in which the pandemic has conjured, more an issue it has raised. Before lockdowns began, women were globally still enduring at least 75% of unpaid care and domestic work, working averagely three hours more each day than their male counterparts [7]. This is therefore not a ‘Covid issue’, this is a women’s issue. In order for wide scale change, we need to see a different work structure which suits the modern world as well as aiming to change the dominant discourse which normalises females overworking and celebrates men’s contributions to domestic work.

References:

[1] Hochschild, A., & Machung, A. (2012). The second shift: Working families and the revolution at home. Penguin.

[2] Duncombe, J. and Marsden, D., 1995. ‘Workaholics’ and ‘whingeing women’: Theorising intimacy and emotion work—the last frontier of gender inequality? The Sociological Review, 43(1), pp.150-169.

[3] Chung, H. (2020). Return of the 1950s house-wife? How to stop coronavirus lockdown reinforcing sexist gender roles. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/return-of-the-1950s-housewife-how-to-stop-coronavirus-lockdown-reinforcing-sexist-gender-roles-134851.

[4] Pozzan, E., & Cattaneo, U. (2020). Women health workers: Working relentlessly in hospitals and at home. Geneva: International Labour Organisation, Available online: https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_741060/lang--en/index.htm (accessed on 16 October 2020).

[5] Hall, R. (2021). Girls doing more housework in Covid lockdown than boys. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/03/girls-doing-more-housework-in-covid-lockdown-than-boys [Accessed 30 Mar. 2021].

[6] Bean, S. (2016). Women not reaping full wellbeing benefits of flexible working. [online] Workplace Insight. Available at: https://workplaceinsight.net/women-not-reaping-wellbeing-benefits-flexible-employment/ [Accessed 30 Mar. 2021].

[7] Moreira da Silva, J. 2019. “Why You Should Care About Unpaid Care Work.” OECD Development Matters, March 18. https://oecd-development-matters.org/2019/03/18/why-you-should-care-about-unpaid-care-work